Ever since I can remember, I have always loved rice cakes. If I don't have my rice cake every couple of months, I will crave it every day until I do, and mind you, I am not a pleasant person to be around until I get my fix! To satisfy my current craving, I decided to make the ultimate Korean street food, rabboki. This dish is a spin on ddukboki, mixing spicy rice cakes with ramen! Add some spam and you have comfort food at its best. You'll want to make a big batch of this dish, trust me!
Rabboki (Ddukbokgi with Ramen)
Ingredients
Sauce
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons mirin
- 1 tablespoon rice syrup
- 1 ½ tablespoons chili paste (gochujang)
- 1 teaspoon black bean paste
Remaining ingredients
- 1 lb rice cakes
- 4 ounces ramen noodles
- 2 tablespoons oil, divided
- ½ can spam sliced and cut into triangles
- ½ onion sliced
- 3 carrots sliced
Instructions
- Combine ingredients for sauce including water, soy sauce, mirin, rice syrup, gochujang, and black bean paste in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cook ramen noodles until al dente. Drain and shock in ice water. Drain again and set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large saute pan. Add sliced spam and sear on both sides. Remove from pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, heat another tablespoon oil. Add onions and carrots and saute until onion has softened, about 3 minutes. Add spam and rice cakes to pan. Pour sauce and stir until well coated. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes or until rice cakes are soft.
- Add ramen noodles and simmer for 1 minute or until warm. Remove from heat and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Serve immediately.
**Helpful tips and common mistakes
Rice cakes are the comfort food of Korean cuisine, and rightly so. They are dense, chewy, sweet, and spicy. They are great as a late-night snack, mid-afternoon, dinner, lunch, pretty much any time of the day.
You can find fresh or frozen rice cakes at most Asian stores. If you are using frozen rice cakes, soak them in room temperature water for 30 minutes. If you're using fresh rice cakes, make sure to purchase them on the day you're cooking them since they will dry and harden after 24 hours.
Rice cakes also come in different shapes including long cylindrical rice cakes and ovalettes. Typically, people cook ovalettes in soups and cylindrical shapes for stir-fried dishes.
You can make this dish vegetarian or add a salty protein like spam. Not a fan of spam? Try ham, pork belly, or even chicken!
Some of the sauce ingredients may sound foreign but they can all be found in local Asian markets. Gochujang is a Korean chili paste; depending on the brand, some may be spicier than others. The black bean paste is the same paste used to prepare the popular Chinese-Korean noodle dish, jja jang myun. Brown rice syrup is similar to corn syrup in that they are both sugaring agents; however, one is made from rice and the other from corn. If you can't find brown rice syrup, substitute it with corn syrup.
You can make ddukbogi spicy or non-spicy but rabboki is best spicy. The spiciness helps balance the heaviness of the dish.
Rabboki is my ultimate Korean comfort dish. I just can't resist a bowl of ramen noodles tossed with soft, chewy rice cakes, salty spam, sweet onions, and carrots in a spicy sauce. I'm drooling just thinking about it! If you never had Korean food before, this dish would be a great one to introduce you to the cuisine. Go ahead, give it a try!
For more Korean food inspiration check out this bossam recipe!
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