One of my favorite ways to make it is to include soft tofu, fresh cabbage, kimchi, carrots, fish tofu and berkshire pork sausages ❤ We usually have fish tofu, fish balls, and the berkshire pork sausages in our freezer to cook with instant noodles or for hotpot night, so it's a great addition to kimchi stews and soups as well! It is so perfect and so spicy delicious for when it's cold out! Warms you right up from the inside out 🥵❤

A trick to make your broth have more depth of flavor is to add a spoon of white miso, or to make a dashi broth base. You can boil dried kelp and anchovies to achieve this from scratch, or a spoonful of instant dashi also works in a pinch. It adds an extra bit of umami to the soup that is deeper and more delicious than just adding salt!

It only took about 10-15 minutes or so for it to be ready to eat, super easy one pot meal, and can be easily made vegetarian if you take out the sausage/fish tofu I added.

KIMCHI TOFU STEW
Makes 2 servings.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 tbsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp miso
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- Gochugaru (1-2 tbsp) depending on how spicy you like it
- 1 cup kimchi
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1-2 cups chopped cabbage
- 1 chopped carrot
- fish tofu (optional)
- berkshire sausages (optional)
- 1 box soft tofu
- 2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth

DIRECTIONS:
Just throw it all into a pot and boil together until the veggies are soft (to your liking). Would be awesome to eat with rice or if you are doing low carb, just eat it as is!

Hope you enjoy!

Until next time, 
​Jenny

This chewy Korean rice cake dish is spicy, savory and sweet 😋 you can add anything you really want to it, but for this recipe I added some bean curd sticks, marinated chicken thigh and king oyster mushrooms 🍄The alarmingly red spicy gochujang sauce keeps you warm for sure, and I particularly love eating this dish on cold, rainy or wintery days. This dish goes well with Japanese or Korean Berkshire Pork Sausages, enoki mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, spam, and more! Some folks also like to add ramen to it, making it a "rabokki" instead of "tteokbokki". It can get pretty spicy, but you can adjust the amount of gochugaru and gochujang and add more agave nectar or sugar for sweetness to balance it out for something more mild. I absolutely love the chewiness of the rice cake, and the fiery spicy sauce definitely wakes up the senses!

The Chinese equivalent of the Korean rice cake is usually more flat, oval shaped and is often eaten during holidays. I personally like the Korean rice cake more though, because the cylindrical shape gives it more of a delightful chew 😊

Here is my recipe (I also added a little bit of prickly ash oil for that spicy mala flavor ❤)

SPICY TTEOKBOKKI KOREAN RICE CAKE​

INGREDIENTS
• Korean Tteokbokki rice cake 1/4-1/3 bag
• 1 tbsp Gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes/powder)
• 2 oz chicken thigh
• 1/2 cup julienned king oyster mushroom
• 1 oz bean curd sticks
• 2 tbsp gochujang
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp agave nectar
• 1 tsp mala prickly ash oil
• 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 cup water

DIRECTIONS
1. Cook garlic and chicken until cooked through. Add julienned king oyster mushrooms and bean curd sticks and mix.
2. Add rice cakes, 1/2 cup water, gochujang, oyster sauce. Add agave nectar and gochugaru to desired sweetness and spice level.
3. Mix well and let cook on medium high heat until sauce becomes thick and sticky, and the rice cakes are cooked to desired softness. Serve with some scallions on top. Enjoy!

Until next time,
Jenny

I used dried shiitake mushrooms and re-hydrated them, saving the mushroom broth to use when cooking the japchae instead of water. I would much rather use dried shiitakes and re-hydrate them instead of using fresh shiitakes because there is a depth of flavor from the drying process that concentrates the mushroom flavor to a whole different level of umami. Like a dry-aged steak, the flavors of the aged beef are more pronounced and richer when dried than a fresh cut. Also, the mushroom broth that comes out of rehydrating is great for cooking and replacing vegetable stock in recipes. 

When I boil the noodles, I also cook the veggies at the same time, starting with the carrots. Then the garlic and mushrooms go in, and lastly the spinach. From there, the noodles are tossed in and the sauce joins the party! 

With a sprinkling of sesame seeds and fresh chopped scallions, the dish is complete and ready to eat. Enjoy as a meal by itself, or cook it as a side dish to eat with Korean bbq at home--grill up some meat, serve with fresh lettuce leaves, kimchi, potato salad..the list goes on. I am seriously missing Kbbq right now. 😞 

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/4 large carrot
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 cups spinach leaves
• 1 bundle japchae sweet potato vermicelli noodles (daengmyeon)
• 1 cup shiitake mushroom broth
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp lite soy sauce
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
• sesame seeds (garnish, optional)

Protein (optional)

• 3 boneless, skinless chicken thigh or 1/4 lb flank steak, sliced

We hope you enjoy this Korean staple dish as much as we do!