Ddukbokkie (Korean spicy Rice Cakes)

http://www.maangchi.com/recipes/ddukbokkie

Just want to give a shout out to Maangchi. I love her online Korean cooking shows. They make Korean cooking look so good and easy to make. Here's my first dish made from a recipe on her site with some personal changes and notes from me.

Ingredients:

7 Large Dried Anchovies

1/2 package of Korean rice cakes (1 lb)

4 tbs Hot pepper Paste
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs hot pepper flakes (optional)
Green onions (optional)

Directions:

1. Clean the dried anchovies, remove their heads and intestines. Cut along the stomach of the anchovies, the intestine are the black items you will see inside. Sorry for the blurry photo, I've tried taking them several times and can't find a reason why they keep coming out blurry. Remove them and place them to boil in water for 10 minutes over medium heat.

2. Separate the tubes of rice cake into individual pieces.

3. In a pan, pour 4 cups of water and add 7 large dried anchovies. Boil the water for 10 minutes over medium heat.

4. Remove the anchovies and add the rice cakes, 4 tbs of hot pepper paste, 1 tbs of sugar, and 1 tbs of hot pepper flakes. Stir it constantly or else rice cakes will start sticking to bottom of the pan.

5. Cut 7 green onions into 5 cm long pieces, and add them to the pot.

6. Keep stirring until the sauce is thick and the rice cake is shiny. Transfer it to a plate and serve!

Chinese Spring Onion Pancakes (Makes 4)

Found a recipe for Spring Onion pancakes in one of my recipe books, so I decided to try it out for dinner tonight.

Recipe is as follows:

Adapted from Chinese Snacks by Huang Su-Huei

Dough:

2 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup boiling water

1/4 cold water

Filling:

3 tbs chopped green onions

1/4 tbs vegetable oil or any other type of oil

around 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. To create dough, add boiling water to flour and mix. Then add in cold water and mix again until smooth. Set aside for 20 minutes. Remove the dough and knead on a lightly oiled surface until dough is smooth and elastic.

2. Divide dough into 4 equal parts.

3. On a flat surface, prepare the surface by rolling a piece of plastic wrap. On top of plastic wrap, take a piece of dough and press down with hands to create a round shape. (The plastic wrap makes it easier for cleaning up)

4. Brush the dough lightly with oil, sprinkle salt and green onions.

5. Fold both sides over to the center, lightly flatten, and then roll one end over to form a snail shaped dough. Flatten the dough into a round shape. It is not necessary for a perfect round shape since the pancakes are cut into quarters when serving. Take your rolling pin and roll until dough is thin. Repeat with the other pieces of dough.

6. Heat a skillet and add enough oil to coat the skillet. Stir-fry the pancakes until both sides are golden; remove.

To Serve: Cut each pancakes into quarters and serve on a plate. Enjoy!