The problem with the holidays is that there are these huge meals and events that are wonderful and grand…  and then there are nights like tonight, an extra uneventful night. It’s cold and I’m jonesing for a big bowl of instant noodles, alas, my wonderful sister ate the last one on her visit here.

So I iron-chefed my fridge, today’s secret ingredient, slightly freezer burned mandoo.  Fukusan, what will we do? If you were too Iron-Chef your fridge what would you make?

I made a quick anchovy broth, tossed in some rice cakes (also slightly freezer burned), the mandoos, some cabbage for some roughage and tada, dinner!

The wonderful thing about Korean food is that most things go well with kimchi.  Thankfully, kimchi covers many a sin… kind of like Jesus but not so life changing.. see the Christmas tie in?  Thank you Jesus for being my everything, for all other things food salvation related, thanks kimchi.

To the Recipe:

The Broth
4 cups water
4 large dried anchovies de-gutted
4 pieces of dashima
2 teaspoon naturally brewed soy sauce
6 slightly freezer burned mandoo (dumplings)
A handful slightly freezer burned rice cakes
1/2 cup roughly choppped cabbage

First place the frozen rice cakes in a bowl with water to thaw and rehydrate (my cabbage was a little limp so I had it in with the rice cakes) (hey, this isn’t my most prized dish, it’s just Monday dinner) .

Steep the broth for around 10 minutes, then add the soy

Remove all the things of the sea, you should have a clear broth.

When the broth is back to a rolling boil add in the frozen mandoo and rice cakes.

Bring it back to a boil (the frozen stuff will make the temperature drop so wait to add the cabbage).

Bring it back to a boil and add in an beaten egg.

TADA dinner.

Notes:

There is an old Korean wives tale that if you make ugly mandoos you will make ugly babies.. sorry future babies, but I mean you’re 50% of your dad too… I’m just saying..

Degutting anchovies is best done on a humid day so that the fishes are a little flexible or you can just man handle it like I did…

Merry Christmas everyone!