Dinner: Korean-Style Tteok with Spicy Pork “Ragù” & Gai Lan

Over Christmas we found a pretty good deal for another week of Blue Apron meals.  Since the first round was delicious, we decided to try it out again.  For $30, we got three new meals to try out.  $10 a meal for the two of us was just too good to pass up.  The big box showed up last week and it was time to dig in.

The first recipe up that we wanted to try out was the Korean Style Tteok.  We recently were introduced to Korean food and this one looked and sounded pretty good.  There were definitely some ingredients we had never heard of before and who knew how they tasted, but what the hell…we’re up for trying anything once.

The best part about the Blue Apron meals is having everything measured out and ready to go.  We had to chop up a few things, but that took all of three minutes.  Everything else is packaged up and ready to go.  With this recipe, it was pretty much throw everything into a pan at different intervals and cook it up.  We tasted the sauce to get the right ratio of sweet soy sauce to gochujang (a spicy sauce).  We used all of the sweet soy sauce and about three quarters of the gochujang sauce.

While the pot with the spicy pork was marinating together, we threw the Korean rice cakes on.  We had never seen these before.  They kind of reminded me of water chestnuts in the bag, but then you boil them in water for a few minutes.  Still not knowing how they taste or the texture, we threw them into the mix with everything else.

The recipe didn’t call for it, but we added a little rice to the bottom of our bowls of tteok.  We threw the mixture on top, added the scallions an sat down to dive in.  I loved it.  The rice cakes had a doughy constancy to them.  The meal as a whole reminded me of a deconstructed pot sticker.  Like if you took the rice cakes and rolled the pork up in them, it would make a pot sticker.  I love pot stickers, so this was right up my alley.  The wife doesn’t care for doughy things too much, so while she liked the meal…she was not a fan of the rice cakes.  Overall, definitely a fan of this one.

We are now four for four on Blue Apron meals.  We have two more to try and I can’t wait to get into them!

Dinner Beer: Fiddlehead Mastermind

Korean-Style Tteok with Spicy Pork “Ragù” & Gai Lan

Ingredients

• 10 Ounces Ground Pork
• 8 Ounces Korean Rice Cakes
• 1 Bunch Gai Lan
• 3 Cloves Garlic
• 2 Scallions
• 1 Yellow Onion
• 1 1-Inch Piece Ginger
• 2 Tablespoons Sweet Soy Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Heavy Cream
• 1 Tablespoon Garlic Black Bean Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Gochujang

Directions

1. Wash and dry the fresh produce. Heat a medium pot of salted water to boiling on high. Remove the very end of the gai lan stems; roughly chop the gai lan leaves and stems. Peel and mince the garlic and ginger. Remove and discard the root end of the scallions; thinly slice the scallions, separating the white bottoms and green tops. Peel and small dice the onion.
2. In a large pan (nonstick if you have one), heat 2 teaspoons of oil on medium until hot. Add the pork and season with salt and pepper. Cook, frequently breaking the meat apart with a spoon, 4 to 6 minutes, or until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a bowl and set aside, leaving any drippings in the pan.
3. Heat the pan of reserved pork drippings on medium until hot. Add the garlic, ginger, onion and white bottoms of the scallions. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes, or until fragrant and the onion has softened.
4. To the pan of aromatics, add the gai lan, sweet soy sauce, garlic black bean sauce, heavy cream, cooked pork, ½ cup of water and as much of the gochujang as you’d like, depending on how spicy you’d like the dish to be. Cook, stirring occasionally, 7 to 9 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened.
5. After the sauce has cooked for 5 minutes, add the Korean rice cakes to the pot of boiling water. Cook 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and immediately transfer to the pan of ragù; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2 to 3 minutes, or until the Korean rice cakes are thoroughly coated in the sauce. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Divide the Korean rice cakes and “ragù” between 2 dishes. Garnish with the green tops of the scallions.

Whatever this is…

Getting things started.

Making the ragú.

Letting it simmer a second.

Beer.