Spicy Tiny Anchovy BokkEum

If you are into Korean cuisine, you know that Koreans eat many different side-dishes for each meal. Sometimes, you might wonder how they can prepare all those various foods whenever they eat. The tip is that there are many Korean side-dishes that you can prepare ahead of time and store them in the refrigerator. This recipe is one of them. This spicy and crunchy tiny anchovy side is very simple to make, yet can keep for a while to enjoy later. You can check my non-spicy version of it too.

Yield: 1 Cup

Short Korean Lesson

UiJa (의자) = Chair
ChaekSang (책상) = Desk

Video Instructions

⏰ The video for this recipe will be started at 2:10.

Main Ingredients:

1 Cup Dried Tiny Anchovies (2 oz)
1 Tbsp Hot Pepper Paste
1 Tbsp Water
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Hot Pepper Powder
1 tsp Garlic, Minced
½ tsp Soy Sauce
½ tsp Sesame Oil
½ tsp Sesame Seeds

Directions

These are the ingredients for this recipe.

Obtain 1 cup of dried tiny anchovies (2 oz).

Put the anchovies into a heated pan, and stir fry them without any oil for 5 minutes on medium. Occasionally stir them. After 5 minutes, they will start to make a “tik tik” sound and start to become a little brown, which determines when they are done. This step helps to remove bad fishy flavor and gives them a crunchy texture.

After 5 minutes, put the anchovies in a strainer and tap them so that the little chunks or powder from the anchovies will be removed. This is another tip to remove some of the bad fishy flavor.

In a heated pan, add 1 Tbsp hot pepper paste, 1 tsp hot pepper powder, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1 Tbsp water, ½ tsp soy sauce, and 1 tsp minced garlic. Mix everything together.

Fry the sauce for a minute and then quickly turn off the heat.

Put the anchovies into the sauce.

Mix everything together. Here, if you don’t want the anchovies to be crunchy, use corn syrup or honey instead of sugar and don’t cook the sauce too long.