Ddeokbokki

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Ddeokbokki

Ddeokbokki

Duck What?

Ddeokbokki  (pronounced duck – bOHki) is a sweet, spicy, chewy comfort food from Korea. I first encountered it while watching the Korean Tasty Road restaurant show on the mnet channel. It sounded so interesting that I started searching for recipes and found a simple on one mykoreankitchen.com.

If you have a good Korean grocery in your area (along the lines of H-Mart or Assi Plaza, or even a small neighborhood market), look for fresh Ddeok rice cakes. If you can’t find fresh, they will probably have them in the frozen section. Also look for the gochujang sauce (in a little square tub).

Here’s the recipe: Stir Fried Rice Cake with Gochujang Sauce (Ddeokbokki in Korean)

My Tweaks:  I left out the fish cake and added peeled eggplant at the beginning of cooking (with the onion). I also added some julienned carrots towards the end so they got a little cooked, but just enough to stay crunchy. I sprinkled with toasted black sesame seeds before serving.

Delicious!

-m


Grandmom’s Lentil Soup Recipe

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Grandmom's Lentil Soup

Grandmom’s Lentil Soup

According to my late Grandmom, it is Italian tradition to make lentil soup on New Year’s Day for good fortune. The lentils represent little coins. Here’s her recipe.

Grandmom’s Lentil Soup

2 cups (one pkg.) Jack Rabbit or Goya Lentils
2 small whole onions, peeled
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 carrots, chopped fine
2 ribs celery and leaves from inner ribs, chopped fine
8-ounce can Hunt’s tomato sauce
1 T. olive oil
1 bay leaf
3-5 qts. cold water  (depending on how soupy you like your soup)
8 oz small pasta – pastina, tubetini, or small elbows – cooked al dente before adding to the soup
salt to taste (after cooking)

Pick over lentils, wash and drain. Place in large soup pot with all of the above ingredients. Simmer until lentils are tender (one hour). When finished, add pasta, then salt to taste.

It’s a very simple soup, but very comforting.

My Tweaks:
To make this gluten-free, I use rice pasta instead of the regular pasta. I also like to DOUBLE the amount of carrots, celery, garlic and onion. I use 3 qts of water because I like a thicker soup. I also added some organic tuscan kale (leafy part – ribs discarded) in the last 10 minutes of cooking time. The kale adds the health benefits of dark, leafy greens. Another option would be to add escarole right at the end.  I find this needs lots of salt because it is made mostly with water, not broth or stock. I salt when serving or reheating. I could’ve used the pressure cooker for this, but I decided to cook it on the stovetop, the way my Grandmom always did.

Happy New Year!

-m


Emergency Baked Beans

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Emergency Baked Beans

Emergency Baked Beans (photo from easypeasyorganic.com)

I happened to stumble upon this recipe today on gojee.com and it looked so good and easy. I’ve had a package of FIG brand organic cannellini beans in my cabinet for a few months and had all the other ingredients (or substitutes on hand).

I whipped it up in about 10 minutes and I can honestly say that these are the best baked beans I’ve ever had. I usually feel like baked beans taste like the can they came in, so this fresh version is a new favorite. I live on beans, so this will be a welcome addition to my repertoire.

Click here for the recipe:

EASY PEASY ORGANIC EMERGENCY BAKED BEANS

My small revisions:
I used brown sugar in place of the rapadura sugar and also used up an open jar of pasta sauce (Rao’s Arrabiata Spicy Tomato Sauce) in place of the tomato puree. This added a little heat, which is great with the sweetness. Next time I might sauté some chopped onions at the start of the recipe to add a little crunch and texture.