Eomuk-tang
Fish cakes on skewers simmered in a clear broth of anchovies, kelp and radish, with a soy-chili sauce for dipping: the steaming street-cart snack of a Korean winter. About 45 minutes for four.
- Time
- 45 min
- Level
- Easy
- Spice
- Serves
- 4
What is Eomuk-tang?
WHAT IT IS
Eomuk-tang is Korean fish cakes, made from pounded fish that's shaped and fried, simmered in a light broth of dried anchovies, kelp and radish. Street stalls thread long folded sheets onto skewers and keep them in a steaming pot; you pick a skewer, dip it in soy sauce and sip the hot broth from a cup. Many people still call it odeng.
WHERE IT COMES FROM
Korea's encyclopedias trace today's fish cakes to Japanese kamaboko, made and sold by Japanese residents in port cities such as Busan under colonial rule; an 18th-century Korean book already describes a rolled fish dish named after it, made quite differently. After liberation, Korean-owned factories grew up in Busan, and during the Korean War the refugees crowding into the city made the cheap, filling cakes a national food. The drinking houses where people ate odeng-tang became Busan's gathering places. The everyday name odeng comes from oden, a Japanese simmered dish; eomuk has been the recommended Korean word since 1992.
Sources:Encyclopedia of Korean CultureEncyclopedia of Korean Folk CultureKorea Tourism Organization
Ingredients
재료Each Korean item has a substitute, in case you can’t get to a store.
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- 1 lb (450 g)Korean fish cakes (eomuk), flat sheets or a mix of shapes 어묵
Substitute: Find them frozen or chilled at Korean grocers. Cakes with a high fish content stay springy in the broth.
Search on Amazon Amazon US - 8 oz (225 g)Korean radish (mu) or daikon, cut into thin 1½-inch (4 cm) squares 무Any grocer
- 20 large (1 oz / 30 g)Dried anchovies for broth, heads and dark guts removed 멸치 육수
Substitute: Or dissolve anchovy broth tablets in the water as the pack directs, and leave the anchovies and kelp out of step 1.
Search on Amazon Amazon US - 1 piece, about 4 inches (10 cm) squareDried kelp (dasima) 다시마Any grocer
- ½Onion, in large chunks 양파Any grocer
- 9 cups (2.2 L)Water 물In your pantry
- 4 tbspSoy sauce: 1 tbsp for the broth, 3 for the dipping sauce 간장
Sempio Korean Soy Sauce, Rich and Delicate · 860 ml
Check price on Amazon Amazon US - 2Scallions, chopped 대파Any grocer
- 1 (optional)Red or green chili, sliced 홍고추Any grocer
- 1 tspGochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes), for the dipping sauce 고춧가루
Taekyung Red Pepper Powder · 1 lb
Check price on Amazon Amazon US - For the broth: 1 tsp minced garlic, about ½ tsp salt and black pepper. For the dipping sauce: ½ tsp sugar and 1 tsp toasted sesame oil. 8 wooden skewers (optional)In your pantry
Method
만드는 법Sources we compared:MaangchiKorean BapsangMy Korean Kitchen
- 1
Make the anchovy broth
Toast the anchovies in a dry pot over medium heat for 1–2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the 9 cups (2.2 L) of water, the kelp, onion and radish, and bring to a boil. After 10 minutes, take out the kelp. Keep boiling uncovered over medium heat for 15 minutes more, then strain the broth, saving the radish. You should have about 8 cups (2 L).
Toasting the anchovies first and leaving the lid off cut down the fishy smell. Kelp left in too long turns the broth slimy and bitter.
- 2
Rinse and skewer the fish cakes
Put the fish cakes in a colander and pour boiling water over them to rinse off the frying oil. Cut flat sheets in half lengthwise, then fold each strip back and forth like an accordion and thread it onto a skewer. Cut other shapes into bite-size pieces.
The accordion fold on a long skewer is how street carts do it. It looks good, and the broth soaks into every fold.
- 3
Season the broth
Bring the broth back to a boil in a wide pot and season it with 1 tbsp soy sauce, the garlic and about ½ tsp salt. Return the radish. It should taste lightly salty; the fish cakes add more flavor as they cook.
- 4
Simmer the fish cakes
Lay the skewers and pieces in the broth and simmer over medium heat for 5–10 minutes, spooning broth over the top, until the fish cakes are plump and soft. Add the scallions, chili and a pinch of black pepper just before serving.
Fish cakes are sold already cooked; this just heats and flavors them. Boiled much longer, they swell and turn spongy.
- 5
Serve with dipping sauce
Mix 3 tbsp soy sauce with the gochugaru, sugar, sesame oil and a little chopped scallion and chili. Bring the pot to the table, ladle broth into cups or bowls, and dip each fish cake in the sauce as you eat.
At Korean street stalls you help yourself to skewers and pay at the end by counting your empty sticks.
Say it in Korean
한국어로 말해 보세요For a fish cake stall on a cold street, or a pojangmacha (street tent bar).
Cookware you’ll need
조리 도구Any wide pot works; a shallow one lets the skewers lie flat in the broth. This is the 5-quart sauté pan with lid we link to.
