Tteokbokki

 I've always been an adventurous person when it comes to traveling and food. Back when our family was still in Jakarta, Indonesia, I often blog-walking through food blogs, some of them are Korean food blogs. And I had always been curious about the taste. It said it was spicy, how hot could that be? Was it really good as it was said?

But I never tried to make one, even one recipe. Simply because I didn't want to spend extra on buying imported ingredients which I was not sure I would last them.

But here we are now in Seoul, and I was like a little girl in a candy shop when I first hit the supermarket (really, that's how I LOVE to do my groceries!). And here it is, one of my first gochujang experiences which I like so much, Tteokbokki.

I got the recipe from here but I modified a bit to fit my liking.

Ingredients

2 1/2C water
5-6 dried anchovies
1 piece of dried kelp
400 gr rice cakes
2-3 T gochujang (Korean red chilli paste)
1/2 T sugar
2 slices of fish cake sheet, diced
1/4 cabbage, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1-2 cherry tomatoes, diced
1/2 leek, cut diagonally

Directions

1. Make the stock first. Boil the anchovies, fish cake and kelp, remove the scum using a strainer, and reduce the heat to medium low for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it sit for 15 minutes. Remove the fish cake, discard the anchovies and kelp to reserve 2 cups of stock.
2. Boil water in a large pot, and blanched the rice cake for 30 minutes to get them ready to soak the sauce.
3. Put the stock in a non-stick pan and add the red chilli paste and sugar until well mixed. Add rice cake and cabbage, bring to boil over medium heat until the cabbage gets soften and sauce thicken.
4. Add fish cake, garlic, leek, and tomatoes. Continue to simmer over medium low heat until the sauce gets real thick to your liking.