How to make... Tteokbokki (떡볶이)

What's Tteokbokki? It's a very very very spicy Korean snack (even spicier than normal Korean food). "A favorite of collage students." - quote Miss Kwon.

We learned how to make this on Monday!

First, you can either use water in your recipe, or fish broth. How do you make fish broth? I'll go over that first!

Fish Broth, Ingredients:

• Dried Fish

• Radish

• Seaweed (not the type used in sushi. tougher and thicker)

1. Fill a large pot half full of water and dump in a handful of dried fish.
2. Cut up a handful of radish to make 3 or 4 large chunks about the size of your palm, add to water
3. Clean and cut a piece of seaweed into 3-4 palm sized pieces, add to water.
4. Turn heat on high and boil. Turn down to keep it at a simmer while we make the rest of the recipe.

Tteokbokki! Ingredients:

• Noodles- round rice cake noodles that look like mozzarella sticks cut in half.
• Sugar (brown or white, I don't think it matters)
• Chili Flakes/Powder
• Chili Paste
• Soy Sauce , or Salt

• Fish Cake

1. Pour the noodles in a bowl and soak for 10 minutes or more if they're particularly tough.
2. Use a small bowl to mix 3 tablespoons of chili paste, 1 tablespoon chili powder and 2 tablespoons sugar. Add in soy sauce until you have a thick paste like texture. You can use salt instead of soy sauce but the result won't be as good. Mix and add ingredients till it tastes good to you (sweet and very spicy, tangy).
3. Scoop out all dried fish and radishes and seaweed from the above broth if you made it. Throw them away.
4. Put noodles in a pot and cover with the broth from above (or water if you're being lazy), set to boil. Add in Fish Cakes.
5. Add in chili paste mixture. Stir. With soy sauce it should be a dark red color and thick. With salt it should be bright orange and a little more watery.

You can use the left over broth to make Fish Cake soup (tong) if you want to. Just make sure there's nothing left in the pot except broth and add fish cake. Boil for a couple minutes and voila!

So spicy, but so good!

I kiss better than I cook!

Wednesday night, our Korean Teacher (short summary for those who might not know, Shannon's company requires each of us take 100 hours of Korean language lessons, which Shannon and I are very enthused about, though Shannon is already much better then I am... Damn his memorization skillz) offered to teach me how to make Kimbap, Korean Sushi. Of course, I accepted!

So, here's my first attempt at Kimbap!! Mine are a little bit flat and the rice didn't go all the way around. My squeezing and cutting techniques are seriously lacking.

So what's in Kimbap? Well, this Kimbap has ham, fishcake, pickled radish, some sort of root, and cooked spinach, wrapped in rice and seaweed!

Miss Kwon and me! Miss Kwon is an expert at making rice. I could not believe how good this rice was. She made this rice in a pot that was not intended to make rice and then even made the crusty stuff at the bottom which is her favorite. And it didn't burn or anything! 

I told her about my previous rice cooking experiences, which have all resulted in terrible half-cooked rice and ruined pots. She said I should stick to an electric rice cooker in the future.    >.<    lol. I'm glad I already own one!

We even convinced Shannon to try making a couple rolls, lol!

Kimbap Instructions

1. The ham, fish cakes, pickled radishes, and brown root all come pre-made for Kimbap (pre-sliced in long skinny pieces for Kimbap). Spinach should be bought fresh. The seaweed comes in sheets.
2. Clean, soak, and cook your rice (if you're not as skilled as Miss Kwon I recommend a rice cooker). After cooked, add sesame seed oil, stir in.
3. Cook your pre-made fish cake thingies in your sautee pan with lots of soy sauce and some sugar. (Miss Kwon kept stressing to make all the fillings salty so they'll taste good inside the Kimbap) Put to the side.
4. Wash your fresh spinach. Put a little bit of water in a pot, bring to a boil. Put your spinach in the pot and cook till cooked. Take out and put on a plate, rinse with cold water. (This will make it stay green) Pour Sesame seed oil on and Salt.
5. Cook your pre-made ham in the Sautee pan. This doesn't need any soy sauce or salt.
6. Get everything out to start rolling. Use your bamboo roller thing, put a sheet of seaweed on it. Put rice on half the seaweed sheet, using plastic gloves will make this easier. Stack your fillings, Miss Kwon says at least 3 fillings, but as many more as you want. We used all 5. User your roller bamboo thing and roll it up halfway. Squeeze the rice around and out. Miss Kwon is great at this, Shannon and I suck. We'll have to practice more. Use some rice on the edge of the seaweed sheet like glue if you need to, roll all the way. Take the bamboo roller away and slice the roll. 
7. Kimbap, yay!!

Thank you Miss Kwon!! I hope I can replicate these in the future! (And that they'll taste almost as good!)