Korean Spicy Hard Boiled Eggs: Eggs in Tteokbokki Sauce

I love these eggs and the Koreans have sure hit a home run with this dish! Let the eggs come to room temperature before boiling them. For the broth, you can just use some vegetable stock with a teaspoon of fish sauce stirred in, but if you like to try cooking with some new ingredients, you can make your own Korean stock by simmering some dried anchovies and kelp together for about 10 to 15 minutes (dried anchovies and kelp are both available at Asian grocery stores or online). Adding sesame seeds is purely optional, but they are a common addition to Korean foods. This is a spicy hot dish, although it's not apt to scorch your tongue, but you can leave out the fresh chili pepper for a milder version; on the other hand, you can add a couple more chilies to rev up the heat level. The chili paste and chili flakes can be found at Asian stores, some supermarkets, spice stores and of course, online.

 

Serve with rice ...

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

8 eggs

3 green onions, chopped (for divided use)

1 medium onion, halved, then thinly sliced

1 hot chili (red or green), chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed to release flavor more easily

1 1/4 cups Korean soup broth (or vegetable broth with 1 teaspoon fish sauce)

3 tablespoons gochujang Korean chili paste

3 tablespoons gochugaru Korean chili flakes

4 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 

(optional) 1 or 2 teaspoons sesame seeds

 

In a large sauce pan, boil the eggs 7 1/2 to 8 minutes, then drain and douse them in cold water (if you like firmer egg yolks, cook them 10 to 11 minutes). Peel the eggs and set them aside briefly. In another pan or large skillet (I prefer a skillet), add the broth over medium heat, then add 2 chopped green onions, sliced onion, hot chili pepper, crushed garlic, chili paste, chili flakes, soy sauce, brown sugar and black pepper, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a steady simmer. Continue simmering the sauce until it is reduced to the consistency you prefer (I like thick sauces, so I reduce it by half). Carefully add the eggs to the reduced sauce and spoon some of the sauce over the eggs as they warm up. After 2 to 3 minutes, remove the eggs and sauce from the heat. Garnish with the remaining chopped green onion and serve over rice, or with rice as a side dish. 

 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Tapestry-The origin of this word is unknown, although some believe it is from an Asian language, while others believe it to be from Persian, which would make it Indo European, with Persian being a relative of English, but further down the family tree. What is known is, the word goes back to transliterated Ancient Greek "tắpes," meaning "carpet," which produced Byzantine Greek "tapetion," a diminutive form meaning "small rug, small carpet," and Latin borrowed this as "tappetium" meaning, "rug, carpet," but also apparently at times, "wall covering of cloth." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "tapiz," with the same meanings, which then became "tapis," with the same meanings, including simply "heavy cloth." This produced French "tapisserie," probably from the verb "tapisser" (which was also from "tapis"), meaning "to cover with heavy decorative cloth or carpet." English borrowed the word in the late 1300s initially as "tapiestre," but why English inserted the "t" near the end is unknown to me, although that additional sound gave us the modern word "tapestry," meaning "heavy cloth with multi-colored decorative patterns."