Spicy Korean Rice Cakes with Noodles (Rabokki)

I seem to be in a Korean type of mood lately, with my Kim Chee Cucumbers, Kim Chee Soba and now a famous Korean street food dish, Rabokki!  I first tried this dish when my friend made this at a sleep over. Note:  Sleepovers post college unless they are in hotel rooms, seem to be a BAD idea.  Even though they sound fun when you are planning it, I think with age we all like comforts.    Our sleep over niter has never been attempted again! 

This dish is total comfort food and major carb heaven!  It combines Korean rice cakes (mochi like discs) with ramen, and marinated beef in a spicy sauce. 

Rabokki
as taught to me by my Korean friends

2 cups sliced rice cake
1 package instant noodles
1/2 onion, sliced
1 1/2 cups water (approximate)
1/2 lb. thinly sliced beef
1 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 cup mushrooms, sliced

Sauce
2-3 Tbsp. Kochijang
1 tsp. Red chili flake
1 tsp. garlic, minced
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. sesame seed oil
2 Tbsp. soy sauce

green onions
sesame seeds

Note: You can get thinly sliced cuts of beef at any Asian market.  I’ve seen this dish done with sea food, pork, fish cake and tofu as well. 

1.  Soak rice cakes in cool water for 15 minutes.  Heat pan on medium high heat and add olive oil to pan.  Add in onions, beef and mushrooms and cook until onions start to slightly soften.  *Don’t worry if your beef is not all the way through at this point, we do this mostly to cook the onions.*

2. Combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Drain the rice cakes and add to pan, along with sauce and water.  Mix ingredients until everything is well coated. 

3.  At this point I like to cook the instant noodles (ramen) in the microwave.  You can add the noodles to the pan at this point and allow it to cook in the sauce as well. *I just prefer to do it in the micro*  Add the noodles to the pan once the rice cakes are tender and you can poke through them with a fork.

4.  Mix well and allow the sauce to thicken up and reduce for a couple of minutes.  Garnish with green onion and sesame seeds and serve!

Chocolate Mochi

Mmm Chocolate Mochi, the last recipe from our Japanese Feast meal.  This is like the combination of a brownie and mochi...  It's so good warm out of the oven, I even like it cold out of the fridge.  Any excuse to eat it is actually good...

On another note, Lindselicious is now on Facebook!  Be sure to click on the icon on the right so you can "become a fan". 

Chocolate Mochi
recipe from LT's mom

2 cups mochiko
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking soda
1.5 cup melted butter (we just used 3/4 cup)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 cans (12 oz) evaporated milk
2 beaten eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

1.  Sift mochiko, baking soda and sugar in a bowl.
2.  In a medium saucepan melt butter, chocolate chips and combine with evaporated milk, vanilla extract and slowly mix in the beaten eggs.



Sorry took the picture mixing on the stove, didn't actually heat the bowl!

3.  Mix and stir into dry ingredients till smooth.

4.  Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.  *Test for cake like texture and bake until the knife comes out smoothly*.  Cut with a plastic knife and serve. 



Thanks LT!  You are welcome to come over and cook anytime!  :)  Actually next time I'll probably have to cook up a good meal for him and the Brazilian...  Perhaps next we'll do an Argentinean feast or sushi!

Chi Chi Dango for Hinamatsuri

Girl's Day, or Hinamatsuri is a Japanese Doll Festival held on March 3rd.  Growing up in Hawaii, Girl's Day was a fun time in which the boys were super nice to us!  In grade school, teachers often asked the boys to pick up our lunch, pull out our chairs before we sat down and other cute gestures like that.  Best of all, on Girl's Day we often had Mochi treats, rice crackers that looked like kokeshi dolls and if you were lucky you might even get a Japanese doll!  My mom would often send me to school with a tray of pink and white colored chi chi dango to share with my classmates. 


Chi Chi Dango
recipe from my mom

1 box mochiko (3.5c)
2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 can coconut milk
2 c water
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp food coloring

1.  Combine mochiko, sugar and baking powder in a bowl.
2.  Blend Coconut milk, water, vanilla and food coloring in a separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to mochiko mixture.
3.  Grease and flour a 9x13 pan. Pour into pan and cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

4.  Let cool and cut with plastic knife (or cut out with cute cookie cutter shapes) and roll in mochiko or kinako.

This is a super easy recipe if you are just starting out with mochi!  There are tons of variations varying from butter mochi, blueberry, chocolate or pumpkin mochi and mochi stuffed with truffles, peanut butter, or an (bean paste).  Even if you aren't Japanese, this is a super cute way to celebrate being a girl with your daughter, sister or girl friends!