[Korean]Rice Cake Wrapped in Pork Belly with Red Sauce

This is sweet chewy pork dish.
If you don't like spicy food at all, this might be hot for you.

Rice Cake Wrapped in Pork Belly with Red Sauce(serves 2)
    Korean name : sam-gyeop-sal ddeok-mal-ee
        pork belly : sam-gyeop-sal
        rice cake : ddeok
        food wrapped with something : mal-ee



Ingredients [click here for details]

0.75 lb pork belly slices
4 oz rice cakes, approximately
1/2 cup rice cooking wine, (you can substitute this with vodka.)
2 Tbsp red pepper paste
1.5 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp dry white wine
1 Tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 Tbsp corn syrup, (you can substitute this with honey.)
a pinch of ground pepper
[optional] 1 tsp sesame seed dressing oil, brown (not yellow cooking oil)
[optional] a several pepper corns




Pork belly : you can buy one at Korean markets, or some big grocery stores.
 [click here for details]




Cooking Instruction

1. Thaw pork belly, and marinate it with 1/2 cup of cooking wine for about 30 minutes.  Add several pepper corns, if you have.
Pork belly slices should be long enough both to wrap rice cake and to stay in shape after the pork  shrinks when it's heated.


2. Thaw as many frozen dried rice cake sticks as pork slices , and heat it in the boiling water for short time till water bubbles appear. Rinse it with cold running water, and set aside.



(a picture when a several bubbles come up) 



3. Smooth a pork slice with your finger to make it longer and thinner.



4. Dip one end of pork in corn starch to help it stay wrapped.


5. Roll rice cake in the meat.



6. Cook these in a skillet till meat is done. Be careful not to unroll them. Drain pork fat.


7. To make a sauce, mix 2 Tbsp of red pepper paste, 1.5 Tbsp of minced garlic, 1 Tbsp of Soy sauce, 1 Tbsp of dry white wine, 1 Tbsp of red pepper flakes, 1/2 Tbsp of sugar, 1/2 Tbsp malt syrup (or honey), 1/2 Tbsp of brown sesame seed oil, and a pinch of ground pepper.


8. Cook meat with sauce till the sauce becomes brown.




How to Serve
as a meal:
Carefully display them on a large plate. For a side dish, any fresh vegetables, such as carrot sticks, would be good since the meat has strong taste. You can add some starch, like steamed rice. You can also eat some raw sliced garlic.


as a side dish for drinking: A side dish for drinking is called 'ahn-joo'. Koreans usually eat some main dish type foods when drinking.