Spicy stir-fried fish cakes

Today I’m going to show you how to make one of the most popular Korean lunchbox side dishes: spicy stirfried fish cakes, or eomuk-bokkeum in Korean. It’s sweet, spicy, chewy, and salty, which means it goes perfectly with rice: the blandness of the rice offsets the bolder flavors of eomuk-bokkeum, and the spicy fish cakes add life to white rice.

All Korean kids love this dish. When my children were young, they loved it when I put it in their dosirak. They never got tired of eomuk-bokkeum!

You can make this recipe with fish cakes bought from the store, or from fish cakes you make at home, either way will be delicious. And for a nonspicy version, skip the spicy stuff – hot pepper paste and green chili peppers – and add 1 tablespoon soy sauce.

Let me know if you make this dish, especially if you make it with your homemade fish cakes. I want to hear how it turns out!

Ingredients

• ½ pound fish cakes (fish cakes store-bought or homemade), sliced into thin pieces
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 to 3 tablespoons hot pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon rice syrup, corn syrup, or sugar
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
• ½ medium onion (¼ cup), sliced thinly
• ¼ cup worth carrot, sliced thinly
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 green chili pepper, chopped
• 1 green onion, chopped

Directions

1. Heat up a frying pan over medium high heat. Add 2 teaspoons vegetable oil and the sliced fish cakes. Stir them with a wooden spoon for a few minutes until light golden brown.
   
2. Add onion, carrot, garlic, and  green chili pepper, and keep stirring for a few minutes until the onion looks a little translucent.
3. Turn the heat down to low. Push the fishcakes and vegetables to the edge of the pan with a wooden spoon to clear out a spot in the middle of the pan.
4. Add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil, hot pepper paste, and rice syrup to the center of the pan. Mix well for a few seconds, and then mix in the fishcakes and the vegetables from the edges of the pan.
5. Remove it from the heat. Add green onion, sesame oil, and sprinkle some sesame seeds over top.
6. Serve with rice.