What is ddubokki? That’s what I wanted to know when I watched a number of Korean dramas! Well it’s Korean rice cake cooked in some spicy Korean paste and other ingredients. 

After a number of searches for recipes (there are quite a few), and a search for a small pack which I could try on (I found some in See Woo Supermarket 泗和行 (si wo hong) – in Lisle street)… I forgot the price, I think it was under £2.

Korean Rice Cake – ddubokki

I already had some of the main ingredients – Korean red chilli paste (unfortunately it had some mould on it – because I didn’t refridgerate it, but I used part of it that didn’t mould – the paste is in the bin now)… One recipe said you can use honey, but most use sugar.

So here’s a couple of pictures of my attempt to make ddubokki… I used half the packet of rice cakes. I used honey instead of sugar… And I also used a Japanese fishcake (because I forgot to buy the Chinese ones).

Rice cakes are cooking in hot paste, water and honey with some added Japanese fishcake

Here’s the final dish. I didn’t cover it with all the sauce because I was afraid of food poisoning myself from the paste! Yeek!

It was nice – can’t say it was spectacular!

In the end did I like it? Well… It was ok I guess. It isn’t the best type of food I have had in the world… Or maybe because I wasn’t hungry when I ate it.

Update 28/06/2012 – forgot to put the recipe on here…
Ingredients:
Packet of ddubokki (Korean rice cakes)
Korean chilli paste
Honey or sugar
Water
Fishcake (optional)

How to cook:
Here I improvised by reviewing a few recipes online…
1. Add water (about 2 cups) into a pan and bring to boil
2. Add the ddubokki into the water (amount is up to you!)
3. Add 2 teaspoons of Korean chilli paste (I used a new tub in my second attempt)…
4. A teaspoon of honey (I drizzled mine in – so I didn’t really use a spoon!)
5. Add fishcake if you want, in my 2nd attempt I added frozen veg – but that’s just me being geeky! ^_^
5. Simmer for 5-10 minutes
6. Serve in a bowl (In my second attempt I enjoyed it a lot!!)

Forgot to give myself a rating too:
My geeky rating (for my own cooking): 3.5/5 – rice cakes could have been softer on first attempt and I need to make sure I refridgerate the paste in future!