Monday I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Korean Rice Cake Curry Stew from The Wok.

Kenji introduces the dish saying it’s a “variation of Korean stewed rice cakes.” Since it follows Spicy Korean Rice Cake Stew, I assume he means it’s a variation on that. Flavor-wise, it was completely different. The only similarity was the rice cakes.

Sliced onion and diced carrots are stir-fried until they start to brown. Then minced garlic and ginger are added until fragrant.

The key ingredient, Korean curry powder, goes in next. Kenji notes that Korean curry powder contains wheat flour, so a 2:1 mixture of non-Korean curry powder with all-purpose flour can substitute. I was able to find Ottogi (soon to be renamed Otoki in the US?) at Super H-Mart. The internet indicated mild, medium, and spicy options, but I could only find mild and spicy in the smaller sizes. From the ingredient list, it seemed that the heat came from ground chilies, so I got the mild and added ⅛ teaspoon of Thai chili powder to provide some heat.

After everything’s coated in curry powder, dashi, rice cakes, sugar, and soy sauce go in. All of that simmers until the rice cakes are tender.

The stew gets some freshly ground black pepper right at the end.

The stew was good. Completely different from the Spicy Korean Rice Cake Stew, which was good for Megan. My son ate the rice cakes out of it. My daughter didn’t try it, even though I made a vegan dashi to keep the whole thing vegetarian friendly. Megan thought it was good. I don’t know what “medium“ curry powder is, but the ⅛ teaspoon of Thai chili powder gave it some good heat.

I served it with a side salad, and I think we were all felt the meal was not that filling. Ordinarily, I’d serve something like this with rice to help bulk it up, but the stew already has rice cakes. It might be better as a side soup. Kenji’s noted option to add a bit of chicken, beef, or pork would help.

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