If you, like me and lots of others, watched Parasite and got really intrigued by the dish chappaguri which is a mix of two different Korean instant noodles, then you may enjoy this one!
Koreans love a bit of mixing and creating compound words. So this one combines tteokbokki which is a tubular rice cake dish simmered in a sweet and spicy gochujang sauce with ramen! This turns a nice street food snack into more of a proper meal and occasion.
I recommend cooking this in your kitchen, then put it on a camping stove/portable stove on your dining table, so you can have the proper Korean experience of enjoying bubbling hot meals at the table!
Recipe:
- 200g of tube rice cakes (you can buy it at any good Asian supermarket or you can find it online easily)
- 2 sheets of fish cake, run them under some water to defrost slightly, pat dry. (They’re literal sheets of fishcake but if you can’t find them, fish balls will do!)
- 1 block of any instant ramen, you can buy plain ones for these occasions, saves you from wasting a shin ramen pack.
- 2 boiled eggs
- 4 Tbs gochujang
- 1 Tbs soy sauce
- 1 Tbs clear syrup such as golden syrup or just sugar
- 2-3 gloves of garlic minced (as much as you want tbh)
- 1 Tbs gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes, don’t replace with normal chilli, just omit)
- 1L of water or fish stock/chicken stock
Method:
Soak rice cakes in some lukewarm water, it’ll prevent them from splitting in the sauce, about 15 min)
Mix gochujang, garlic, gochugaru, soy sauce and syrup in a bowl.
Add rice cake in a high walled pan, add sauce, stock and the fishcake, sliced in thick strips.
Meanwhile boil the eggs to your liking, usually hard boiled eggs are used for this.
bring everything to a simmer and stir occasionally so the rice cakes don’t start sticking to the bottom. This will take about 10 min until most of it is cooked.
Check how runny the sauce is, we want it to be runny enough to cook the ramen, if too thick, add a bit of water.
Now add the ramen and cook until the noodles are done – about 3-5 min. Add boiled and peeled eggs to it. The sauce should be the consistency of a thick gravy once the noodles are cooked.
Serve and enjoy with some fried mandu (dumplings).
