Korean-Style Tteok

REGION: Korea INGREDIENT I'VE NEVER USED BUT WILL GLADLY USE AGAIN: Gochujang

RECOMMENDED CHEF's JUICE: Go wild! Get some fun craft beer that you've never tried and water to cut the spice

NUMBER OF GLASSES CONSUMED IN THE COOKING PROCESS: 2 - but crack open another if you like.

This recipe had all the hallmarks for success, and would have been infinitely more successful had I researched what I'm soon to tell you about the dish BEFORE I made effort to cook said dish. This is a good lesson in the importance of knowing your ingredients. You don't need to be a historian in cookery (a gastronomist??) but it helps if, say, you know what your ingredient is when working with it. It's obvious I didn't, but no matter! Some semblance of a "ragu" made it to the plate and a very happy Hiro ate it without complaint.

I'm starting to think Hiro is a liar.

So I didn't know what Gochujang was, and in not knowing, I threw it all in the pot with a "ingredient be damned!" type attitude. Let's all learn from my mistakes - you should taste your ingredients. I should taste my ingredients, otherwise the subtext of my blog "trying and tasting" is in vain. So, now you know that gochujang is very spicy and that you should add it in a little at a time, all the while TASTING, to achieve your preferred heat level. I gravitate toward a low level heat index - which would make heaping portions of gochujang difficult to swallow.

So we live and learn. I also learned that I do not like tteok - small sliced Korean rice cakes. They have a consistency similiar to mochi and when boiled do something that makes me uncomfortable. That is because I have weird texture preferences. You may LOVE tteok, so I implore you to try it and prove me wrong. I do, however, love noodles, so this "ragu" over a bed of rice or soba noodles may make for a fantastic dinner. Listen to me going rogue (in my mind). I think that warrants a nice glass of chef's juice. Pour yourself some. Let's try this together:

Here's what you'll need:

Ground Pork

Korean Rice Cakes (this may be a harder find - Korean grocers will certainly have them, but it behooves you to get them pre-sliced)

Garlic

Scallions (try to find some with a good amount of white stalk)

Bunch of Gai Lan (this is the Chinese equivalent of kale - so we are still IN VOGUE)

Yellow Onion

Sweet Soy Sauce

Heavy Cream

Ginger

Garlic Black Bean Sauce

Gochujang (be careful out there!)

Here's what you'll do:

Follow this recipe, with beer.

Ragus don't seem to ask too much of the maker. It's a thick sauce with some meat so this spin is helpful in spawning other creative ragu recipes. I think I might start looking around the house for stray ingredients that could together compose ragu. If you think of anything you want me to test, let me know!

TIP: As earlier mentioned taste your damn ingredients. Seeing soy sauce I thought - YES - I really like the taste - so I threw a lot in. But, take a breath - had I, I would have remembered that this was "sweet" soy sauce, and as such, very sweet. This helped with the overall flavor of the dish - adding a sweetness to cut the fire of the gochujang, but overkill kills. Too much sweet and this borders on meat dessert so be vigilant and taste at each step.

PITFALL: The tteok. I just didn't like the taste of it. But I tried, and that's got to count for something.

INADVERTENT LIFE LESSON: Just because a recipe calls for tteok doesn't mean you need to force yourself to consume it. You tried, and that's important, but it's okay to defer to boring old noodles if that's your jam. Cook for the pleasure it brings you - but also to eat. Make the foods you, yourself would eat.

VERDICT:

??? Hiro seemed happy and I'm glad for it. I'm on the fence. It got me in a ragu mindset (which inspired my next adventure), which is something of a success - so... CELEBRATE. Let's all toast to something edible that came of our collective kitchens!

#tteok #Gochujang #koreandinner #ragu #sweetsoysauce #heat