dish for two-- korean food!

 On days when I don't know what to cook for dinner, I look in the fridge and think about what veggies I need to consume. On this particular day, I found dried shitake mushrooms my mom sent me (yay!), some baby bockchoy, and elephant garlic. And we had some angus chuck and rice cakes (which again, mom sent!!). So, a Korean dish we call "gan-jang ttok-boki" (gan-jang is soysauce, and ttok, is the rice cake (I can't seem to find an exact word to describe that rice thing..it's not really cake, but more of...pasta like thing that we make with rice. It can be dried and frozen), and "boki" is the casual noun form of stir frying. I think. Anyways, there are two kinds of such dishes--one, you cook without gan-jang but with pepper sauce. That one's the more common one you will see on Seoul streets (vendors everywhere!), but this time around, I went for soysauce.

I don't follow strict recipes when I cook Korean (or fusion Korean), so I don't have measurements, but for this dish, you need:

1. Some rice cakes that look like those above in the plate (you can get this at Korean markets-- for those in West Lafayette, go to Hana Market).

2. Some shitake or any kind of mushroom you prefer. I usually use the "ordinary and cheap" mushrooms you find at any store-- what do you call those, baby bellas?

3. Some garlic. I used both minced and elephant garlic to spruce things up a bit, but you only need minced if you don't have the real deal.

4. some kind of meat. Beef works best-- it can be ground beef, angus chuck, or any kind you like to use. I don't know about stew meat though, because you do want your beef to be tender and soft:)

5. Some veggies-- I used bockchoy because I had some, but we don't usually use bockchoy for this dish. Cabbage works fine, you can include zucchinis if you like them. I've used also green beans when making dishes like this. Oh, and snap peas? sweet peas? Those work well as well. Add whatever veggie you like. You'll be fine.

6. Soysauce (I used the Korean version I got from Hana mart. I don't know if you can create the same dish with Japanese soysauce--I reckon not. Although both countries use soysauce regularly in their cooking, for some reason, they taste different.)

7. Just for fun, I also added garlic teriyaki sauce.  Why not? We've got beef and bockchoy in there-- it should work! (and it did!)

First, you want to macerate the frozen rice cakes a little. Just put them in a bowl of warm water. Let it sit there for 10-20 minutes. In the meantime, take care of the veggies and the meat. Prep them, so everything is bite sized. I like to also put my bite-sized raw beef into a bowl of wine and sprinkle garlic + pepper (freshly ground_ + some sugar (like a little teaspoon) + if you like, minced onions. Let that sit for 20-25 minutes (or longer, if you have time). This will take away any nasty smell.

Then, pour the beef+wine onto a frying pan. Of course, you need to sprinkle your pan with some kind of oil. I usually use olive oil.

Let that cook halfway. Add soysauce and the veggies and the rice cakes. According to how salty or how strong you want your dish to be, you need to adjust the amount of soysauce you put into your pan. Start with maybe 3-4 table spoons. I know it's a hassle, but keep tasting, add a little more, and repeat as needed. You can also mix soysauce with teriyaki sauce like I did. :)

I just stop when I think the taste is just right (it should be just a little bit salty, but not too much. This is your main dish, not your side--which means, you don't want it to be super salty or super soy-saucy!)

I know this doesn't really help. So, if you want a taste, maybe I'll invite you over for dinner one day and make it for you!

2. 19. 2013