Thursday, July 22, 2010

I Love Dalk-Galbi!



I found the most wonderful Korean grocer in Palmerston North. It is near impossible to get anything resembling Korean food here in our small town, the occasional Shin Ramyen noodles are about as good as it gets. 


Anyhow, I went crazy. I bought a humongous 3kg bucket of gochujang (a wonderful hot pepper bean paste concoction...) and a swag of other wonderful ingredients that nobody except me can identify as there's no English writing on any of the packets. I got chatting with the guy who runs the shop, who's from Busan (an hour or so from Ulsan, where I used to live) - he was lovely and very happy to be able to talk about his home town with me (a great city, one of the lingering memories is the huge fish market right in the middle of town!). 


My favourite thing to do with a giant tub of gochujang is to make Dalk Galbi. Over the years I've mutated the recipe so much it probably isn't actually dalk galbi any more, but I still name it so and it's very popular indeed in this house. Jarvis hasn't had the pleasure of partaking in it just yet, as it's so hot he may spontaneously combust if he were to eat any. I'm very lucky I married well - to a lovely man who isn't afraid of my firey fare. 


A Recipe for Mutant Dalk Galbi!


500g or so boneless chicken thighs, chopped into bite sized pieces
Ddok (korean rice cake thingees)
A kumara, thinly sliced
A bit of thinly sliced cabbage if you're in the mood
3 Tablespoons gochujang
2 Tablespoons chilli powder or chilli flakes
3 cloves garlic, chopped
5cm ginger, chopped
A tablespoon or so dried ginger
1 Tablespoon rice wine (shaoxing is good!)
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
Chicken stock or water to thin.


I mix everything but the chicken & the stock/water together (in the food processor if I'm feeling like cleaning it), then mix it with the chicken, ddok, cabbage and kumara til it's wonderfully coated and throw it into a frying pan. Fry it for a few minutes, then pour in a bit of stock or water to thin the sauce down to your desired consistency. Let it bubble away gently until everything's cooked! 


Serve with rice, and a large bowl of kimchi. 


My next mission, incidentally, is going to be a bit of Kimchi making. Goodness knows how this will turn out, but my friend in the Korean grocery store offered me a few hints from his wife. Hopefully I'll be making kimchi like an ajumma in no time at all ;) 



4 comments:

  1. Yum! We're having your chicken curry for dinner tonight - my mouth is already watering just thinking about it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yayyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! I heart dalk galbi. I want to beam us all back to that dalk galbi restuarant in Ulsan we used to frequent. I'm pretty sure I could still find it after all this time.

    You forgot to say serve with Cass, Hite or OB ;)

    Where do you find ddok? I don't believe i've seen it in my travels, but then I might not be looking hard enough.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yummy - hope it's another great success, Megan! I'll have to make you some more magical spice blend ;)

    Stace - I think the Korean grocer out at Te Aro should have ddok, look in the freezer! Can't remember where exactly in Te Aro it is, but it's there somewhere...I know just what you mean, beaming back in for a feast would be fantastic :)

    Shane & I had some hite when we went out for dinner last week (we had Korean week in Palmy!), it's still as dreadful as it ever was ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your Dalk Galbi looks awesome! Sigh my man does not do chilli........ It's such a shame to make a curry with only one chilli. He doesn't even put the chilli sauce bit in his mia goreng!!! Can you imagine!! He does like kimchi though i just kept putting it in front of him and gradualy he got addicted, much like we did i guess :)Ziggi

    ReplyDelete