Fish Cake & Rice Cake Soup

I got the idea for this soup from a recipe for Japanese New Year's soup.  OK, now if you really look up a recipe for New Year's soup, it's not really like this at all.  I just got the inspiration from there.  I had no chicken thawed (what a surprise) and the rice cakes I have aren't really mochi, but it works.  You can really use any sort of fish cake you have if you don't have these little cubed fish cakes.

Fish Cake & Rice Cake Soup

Ingredients:

small handful of rice cake slices
2 imitation crab sticks
2 pieces fried fish cake
2 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted
1/4 sheet toasted nori seaweed
1 tsp. dashi granules
1 1/2 water
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. mirin
small bunch enoki mushrooms, roots removed
4 snow peas, trimmed
1 spring onion
shichimi togarashi (Japanese seven-spice powder, optional, to serve)

Bring the measured water to a boil.  Add the dashi granules, soy sauce, and mirin.  Stir until the dashi has dissolved completely.

Add the rice cakes and boil 3-4 minutes, or until the rice cakes have softened through and turned a bright white color.

Cut the fish cakes into bite-sized pieces and slice the crab sticks in half.  Slice the shiitake mushrooms into 1/4 in. strips and separate the enoki mushrooms from one another.  Add these ingredients to the soup and simmer for another 2-3 minutes, until the fish cakes have heated all the way through.

Cut the snow peas in half on the diagonal and slice the spring onion into 1 in. pieces.  Add the green vegetables to the soup and simmer an additional 1-2 minutes.

Cut or tear the nori sheet into 1 in. squares.  Add the them one at a time to the soup to keep them from sticking to one another.  Sprinkle with shichimi togarashi and serve.

Lup Cheong & Rice Cake Stir-fry

I know I've been doing a lot of things with rice cakes in soups, but I decided to also try them in a stir fry. This recipe turned out well and had some wonderful flavors, colors, and textures, but I must admit that the sauce was a little on the salty side. If I made it again, I would add a little bit of sugar to the sauce to cut the saltiness.

Lup Cheong & Rice Cake Stir-fry

Ingredients:

handful of rice cake slices
1 lup cheong
handful of frozen, blanched broccoli
small handful of baby spinach
small bunch of enoki mushrooms, roots removed
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
sesame seeds (optional, to serve)

Bring a pot of water to a boil, then add the rice cakes. Simmer 4-5 minutes, or until the rice cakes have softened and turned a nice bright white color. Drain and rinse. Set aside.

Slice the lup cheong into 1/8 in. slices on the diagonal. Heat a pan over medium heat and add the lup cheong. Saute in it's own oils for 2-3 minutes, or until the sausage has cooked through.

Add the broccoli and cook an additional 2-3 minutes.

Add the spinach and cook until wilted.

Mix together the soy sauce, fish sauce, and oyster sauce. Add to the pan and stir to coat.

Take the rice cakes and add them, one at a time (otherwise they stick together) to the pan and stir until everything is well coated and heated through. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.