Last night I made the Spicy Korean Rice Cake Stew (Gungmul Tteokbokki) with Kimchi from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

The dish comes together quickly and easily.

Thinly sliced squares of pork belly are crisped and rendered in the wok. Then chopped kimchi and kimchi juice are added and cooked “until the liquid is dried up and the kimchi is lightly browned around the edges.” I had a hard time determining when the liquid had dried up, because there was so much rendered pork fat. I moved on when I was fairly confident the water had evaporated and the kimchi was frying in the fat.

Garlic is then added and briefly fried before dashi, rice cakes, gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, and soy sauce are added. This all is simmered until the rice cakes are tender.

2-inch-pieces of scallions are added and the stew continues to cook until “a rich, saucy texture.” I felt the sauce was already there, so just gave it a couple minutes to take the edge off the scallions.

Finally, it’s seasoned with black pepper. I added a little more sugar to help with the heat and a touch more soy sauce.

Since we think Megan doesn’t like kimchi and gochujang (she thinks now it’s just the gochujang), I brought the stew to some friends. I pulled a rice cake out for Megan to try before I left, which she didn’t like. My friends and I, however, thought it was delicious.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.