Chili Hot Ddeok

It was a long weekend so we took a drive down the coast where there are acres of green fields that used to be (and some still are) padi or rice fields. The west coast of Sabah is truly pretty, with blue hills on one side and the calm blue sea on the other side:



We went to the Bongawan Golf Resort that has been bought and recently renovated by some Koreans and we were hoping to have their daily Korean buffet. The restaurant was nice with a view of the golf course, which seemed rather devoid of shade trees except for coconut trees which don't give shade but then I'm not a golfer:



But the Korean buffet spread was pathetic, mostly veg and pickles, tough looking pa jon pancakes, and flies galore so we left and went to the Golf Club where we had their chicken chop rice which was, how shall I put it, strange-looking and tasting. Lucky for us we bumped into a friend who was there to golf and when we finished, the waiter told us that our meal was already paid by this friend. This is a common practice here. I like that, I should eat out more often at places where my friends frequent.



We passed by a stall where some fishermen displayed their catch of mackerel and another kind of fish which I can't recognize. I bought the whole fish because it was so fresh:



Since I was craving for Korean food, I got home and cooked the packet of ddeok that had been sitting in my fridge. Ddeok are short solid cylinders of rice dough that are very chewy. The Chinese (see my post on Shanghainese rice sticks), Japanese and Korean all have various shapes of chewy rice dough, and one common way of eating it is grilling and dunking it in soya sauce. My kids love to eat glutinous rice dough this way, as a snack.

The following way of cooking ddeok is very easy because everything is thrown into a pot and boiled until the water is reduced to a thick sauce and the rice dough is soft (but still chewy). You can take the long way and fry the ingredients before adding the water but why take the long (and oily) way when you can avoid it with similar results.

Personally, I'm not so hot about eating ddeok this way. I think Japanese curry sauce would go better with it but who knows, maybe that's how they eat ddeok in Japan.


Ddeokbokki, a popular Korean snack.

Chili Hot Ddeok (serves 4 or more)
600g fresh ddeok, soaked for 1 hour in room temp water & drained
1 brown onion, sliced thinly
200-250g fried fish cake, sliced thinly
1 T garlic, chopped
4 -5 T gochujang (Korean hot bean paste)
1 to 1 1/2 T gochugaru (Korean chili powder--can use local chili powder)
1-2 T light soy sauce
1 t fine sugar (Koreans like it 2 T sweeter but I don't)
2 cups dried anchovy or chicken stock
chopped spring onions and toasted sesame seeds for garnish, sesame oil to drizzle

1. Put the stock, gochujang, gochugaru, garlic, light soy sauce and sugar into a pot. When it boils, add the ddeok and brown onion and let it simmer, covered, stirring now and then.

2. After 15 minutes, add the fish cake slices and extra water if there isn't enough liquid. Let the ddeok simmer (stir!) for another 10 minutes, check if the texture is right for you (soft but still chewy), adjust seasoning if necessary and dish out. If there's a lot of liquid, remover the lid and increase the heat so that the liquid reduces and becomes thick.

3. Garnish with the sesame seeds, spring onions and drizzle some sesame oil over.