Seasoned Rice Sticks – Dduk Bokgi – 떡볶이

This is a recipe for Seasoned Rice Sticks from Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee’s wonderful book Eating Korean.  This dish is apparently a popular snack food in Korea and there is a street in Seoul lined on both sides with this food for sale.

I bought a packet of rice sticks from the local Korean shop and make a tasty vegetarian dish.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 packet rice sticks
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 onion thinly sliced
• 1 carrot sliced thinly at a diagonal
• 1 zucchini cut into thin strips
• 1 tablespoon Korean chilli paste
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon Korean malt syrup (mool yut)
• 2 green onions (shallots) sliced on the diagonal into 1 inch pieces
• 6 shiitake mushrooms

Method

If using refrigerated or frozen (thawed) rice cakes, separate them and soak in cold water to soften them for at least an hour before using.  Drain the rice cakes.

In a large fry pan, heat the oil then add onion and carrot and saute for a couple of minutes or until the carrot becomes a little soft.

Add the rice sticks, zucchini, chilli paste, soy sauce, sesame oil and malt syrup.

Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.  If the rice cakes are still extra hard, cover and let cook for a few more minutes to soften.

Add the green onions and mushroons and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.

The recipe suggested adding boolgogi (meat) or fish cakes, but I preferred making it as a a vegetarian dish.