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."     

Kimchee or Kimchi, A Korean Staple

Kimchee or Kimchi is a very common dish of fermented vegetables, usually spicy, in Korean cuisine, used as a side dish. In Korean restaurants I have gone to over the years, including in Germany, the server has always put out several small dishes of vegetables. I naturally can't recall every vegetable used at every location, but I believe napa cabbage has always been included, as well as daikon (a type of radish).  Recently I decided to give a try to making my own Kimchi, and it turned out quite well. You can also naturally get it at Korean restaurants, and there are versions sold in jars in some supermarkets nowadays, in the refrigerated section (with varying amounts of 'heat'). Making Kimchi is quite simple, with cleaning and cutting of the vegetables being the only real time consuming part. I made my own version using the cabbage and daikon only, with added green onions. You can always alter the amounts, but here's what I used:

1 head of napa cabbage, core removed and cut into strips about an inch or two wide, then cut these into about 2 to 3 inch pieces
1/4 cup of no iodine sea salt
water to cover
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or grated
about 10-12 oz. of daikon radish, peeled and cubed
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
6 green onions, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I only discarded any wilted green part)
8 oz. Korean red chili paste ("gochujang," available in some supermarkets and Asian specialty stores, the type I buy comes in a little tub-like container, with a flip-top lid) 
1 teaspoon sugar
(I like spicy food, so I added about a one inch piece of serrano chili pepper, finely chopped ...YES!)

First, rinse the cabbage repeatedly a little at a time, then put the cabbage pieces into a large bowl or even a stainless steel pot. Add the salt and mix very well, making sure the cabbage is well coated, if you need a little more salt, use it. Add water to just cover. Let the cabbage sit overnight, do not cover. Mix the cabbage and salt solution around again in the morning and let it sit. The total time the cabbage should be in the salted water is about 8 to 10 hours. Empty the salt water solution and fill the container of cabbage with fresh water. Stir the cabbage around to rinse, repeat this step, then taste the cabbage to be certain it isn't too salty, but if it is, repeat the rinse step and drain the cabbage (it SHOULD have a somewhat salty taste, as the salt is a preservative). Add the ginger, garlic, green onions, the hot chili pepper (if using) and daikon. This is how I made my Kimchi, although many Koreans would likely make the daikon separately and serve it in its own dish, but if you do it this way, I doubt they'll make you have to stand watch on the border with North Korea. Mix everything well. I mixed it by hand. If using the chili pepper, be sure to wash your hands well after mixing and don't rub your eyes. Now gradually stir the sugar into the Korean chili paste (it has moderate heat) and add to the vegetables. Mix to be certain there is a coating on all of the ingredients. I added about a quarter cup of water. Cover the bowl or pot with plastic wrap and place it in a cupboard or somewhere where it will not be in your way. Within a day or two it should start to ferment and you can then store it in the refrigerator. Any bubbling is normal, as it is the fermenting process.* So now you have your own Kimchi with both cabbage and daikon radish together, rather than the likely separate dishes .... ahh, what's this rifle for? What do you mean my watch at the border with North Korea starts in 15 minutes?

* I believe more so in the past, but perhaps some Koreans still do it, and that is, the Kimchi was put in a crock and put into a hole in the ground and buried for a period of time. 

In this picture, I had added some larger pieces of red (mildly hot) chili pepper, besides the serrano.

WORD HISTORY:
Radish-This word, related to both English "root" and "wort" (meaning "herb plant," as in St. John's wort, and also "spice," thus "liquid of the beer making process"), goes back to Indo European "wrehd," which meant "root" (perhaps also "sprout"). This gave Latin "radix" ("root"). This then seems to have been borrowed directly from Latin into English circa 1050 to 1100 as "rædic," which indeed meant "radish."