What's for dinner: Dok Boki (Korean roasted rice cakes with Korean Red Dragon Sauce)

A couple weeks ago, a group of coworkers and I had another round of our office potluck dinners. These lunches usually fall on the fantastic side (ie. hot pot at the office!!!) and this time was no different, with the theme being "Asian Dinner."  I was originally planning to make some classic Chinese food, but as fate would have it, I happened to be perusing (and drooling) over a new website I'd stumbled upon: Korean Food Gallery.  Consider yourself warned that viewing this website will cause saliva to pool uncontrollably out of your mouth.

One of the oh-so-delectable recipes I found via there was a dish called Korean roasted rice cakes with Korean Red Dragon Sauce (see recipe here and red dragon sauce recipe here).  Rice cakes, or dok boki, are a popular staple apparently in Korean cuisine, and this particular dish is a common street food.  Rice, street food, Korean - you know I had to try this.  Lucky for my coworkers, my lineage of Chinese cooking genes are still active and this recipe turned out delicious and apparently authentic according to my Korean, and Korean loving, coworkers! Here's how it all went down, with photos grudgingly taken by Mr. Artist:

Vegg

• 1/2 white onion, sliced
• 1 stalk of green onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

First, you gotta take care of the vegetables.  A main component of the sauce is some roasted onions.  Take a nice hot wok and add the oil when wok is hot.  Swirl the oil around the pan a bit, then throw in the onions.  Stir fry for several minutes until onions are golden and reduced.  Periodically add bits of water as per usual in stir fry.

Red Dragon Sauce
While the onions cook, it's time to make the sauce!

• ½ cups Water
• ½ cups Sugar
• ¾ cups Ssamjang (Korean Fermented Bean And Chile Sauce)
• 2 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce (I used dark soy sauce)
• 1 Tablespoon Sherry Vinegar (I used Rice Vinegar)
• 1 teaspoon Asian Sesame Oil
• 2 teaspoons Sesame Seeds

Don't forget about those onions like I did!

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes, then stir in the ssamjang to dissolve it while the mixture is still warm. Then stir in the soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil and seeds and taste the sauce. Adjust as necessary.

Once all the above ingredients are combined, in another pot, combine 1/4 cup mirin (sweet cooking sake) with 1/4 cup chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Boil to reduce until lightly thickened, 2-3 mins

Add red dragon sauce, lower heat to medium low and reduce, stirring occasionally.  After 6-7 minutes of reduction, add the roasted onions. 

Meanwhile, remember those rice cakes??  Take out half a bag's worth, making sure they're not totally frozen.

Pan fry those mofos in a well oiled wok.  Being lazy, I used the same wok that I cooked the onions in, but looking back this was wrong to do.  The recipe said to use a clean pan as these pristine rice cakes pick up every bit left on the pan previously and BOY do they ever!  You can't tell here, but it looked like I had liberally sprinkled these babies with pepper!

Cook on med-high heat for a few minutes, tossing periodically until they have a nice golden singe to them and you can easily squish them with your spatula. 

I would highly encourage doing a taste test here as well for the right consistency as you can easily overcook these rice cakes until they become super hard and dry.  For my tastes, I'd say they're done when the cakes are slightly crunchy on the outside and still nice and chewy inside.

Once they're done, combine the rice cakes with your delicious red dragon sauce and stir to coat.

 

Sprinkle in your green onions and serve right away! 

This dish is a little spicy, a little garlicky, a little BBQ'y, a little sweet and a whole lot of savoury goodness.  If you love flavour then you will be craving this like I am, writing this post right now!  You'll get plenty of servings out of this one, I'd say enough for a dinner party as the rice cakes are quite filling.  Enjoy!

If you have any yummy recipes you'd like to share, I'd love to try them!  And if you make this dish, let me know how it goes, or if you have some special tweaks you've made. Until then readers, good eats for good living!