-I present to you
Korean New York food. Chopped cheese rice cakes. It tastes like a warm hug. ♪♪ I didn't see you there, world. My name is Jae Lee, chef
and owner of Nowon in East Village, New York City, and I'm here today to cook
chopped cheese rice cakes. Let's go, baby. So the first step is to make
aromatic oil, or scallion oil. So we're going to take
some neutral oil. We're basically taking one part
onion and one part scallion and a touch of ginger to help,
you know, infuse the oil. The key to this oil is to add
shit-ton of onion and scallion because once it starts
frying into oil, it's going to lose
a lot of its volume, and you want to make
a concentrated oil. So, chopped cheese is --
is a sandwich that was birthed
in Harlem or Bronx. Imagine a cross
between a cheesesteak and a hamburger served on a hero or a roll with lettuce, tomato,
onion, American cheese, but the the deli guy
will chop up the beef patty the burger meat patty,
right on the griddle and then add melted
American cheese on top. Ginger -- leave the skin on. So this oil takes about...
30 minutes to make, and you want
to keep an eye on it. You're going to notice it's done
when the onion and the scallion kind of lightly caramelizes and the oil is clear. All right, soy pickled
jalapeños, soy sauce, sugar, rice wine vinegar, Yuzu juice. Get the one
that's not salted. So here, soy sauce, sugar,
rice wine vinegar. It's missing garlic. And yes, garlic is a very
important ingredient in this. Sliced jalapeño. You know, the reason
why I cook something that's not exactly
fully Korean is because
like that's just -- that's just literally
who I am, because Americans
will see me in America and they'll see me as a Korean but when I go to Korea,
they see me as an American. So I wanted to bridge that Gap and kind of tell the story
of a Korean American immigrant. So the pickling liquid
has come up to a boil. I'm pouring this over we made
a little more than we need, but that's okay. Alright, next
we're going to make the miso sauce component
of this dish. So there's two types of miso
that I use. One's a Japanese shiro miso, which is sweet or sweeter than
the Korean miso called doenjang. And Korean miso is made
out of soybeans as well. But this is like, a lot funkier,
and this is mirin. Mirin is a sweet rice wine. If you have a torch,
this is good. You just want to burn off
the alcohol. Just watch your face
when you do this because you don't want that
raw alcohol taste. Is it super important?
Can you really, really tell? Probably not,
but it's technique. You don't want to disrespect
your ancestors like that. So the Korean miso so goes in. So I add this in first
because it's clumpier. Japanese shiro miso is smooth. There we go. This is a just freshly ground
ground beef. Alright, so here is Korean
chili flakes. ♪♪ This is Old Bay. And then this is some --
some fish sauce. There we go.
I thought about this, right? When I went to eat
a chopped cheese where I lived in Brooklyn,
the deli guy, I would watch him
and he would sprinkle some like seasoning on top,
and I thought about it and I looked at their spice
rack, and they have Old Bay. So I'm like, "No, this
has to be open." He goes, "Oh, this is
my secret spice plan." I'm like, "Bro, you sure it's
not Old Bay?" In Korean cooking, we like to season even ground,
ground, like, chicken or meat or pork. Like, I just thought of this
as like a dumpling filling. Or like that I have --
that I just cook out instead of encasing
in a wrapper. And my mom used to make these
little Korean beef patties called [ Speaking Korean ] And she would always season
the meat, so I'm like, I could
incorporate flavor in here. I don't want to miss
that opportunity. All right, scallion oil
is complete. You can see
that it's golden brown. You could tell how much scallion
and onion is in here. So you can kind of imagine
how intense and concentrated
the flavor of the oil has to be because of how much scallion, onion, and the ginger
was in here. That's when you know you made
it right -- It looks clear. So in this bowl
we have rice cakes. How cute are these! So we're going to toss these
and coat them lightly in cornstarch before we fry them just so they don't stick
to each other because they have a tendency
to do so. So you can find rice cakes and in Korean supermarkets
like H Mart. There's different shapes.
They're different. But you can you can try
them all, and my old boss used to say, "Number one rule
is there's no rule." So just try it, right? Guys,
always test your rice cake before you put into the fryer because if you put them
in too early and the oil is not hot enough, it's just going to get greasy. You don't want
greasy rice cakes. My grandma would slap you
in the face for that. So if you add in the rice cake, they should start to bubble up. A good temperature is 350. You don't want
to overfry these either because they will pop
in the fryer. Let's move them around. ♪♪ I'm going to see.
Look at that. All right, so now
they're crispy for sure. But I'm going to pull them
out now because I don't want them
to explode like that. So what's Korean-American about
this dish? Or what's Korean,
what's New York about this? Rice cake -- 100% Korean. Soy pickled jalapeños --
100% Korean. Scallion oil -- Korean. Miso sauce -- Korean. The crispy shallot
sesame seeds -- Korean. But now the New York, you know,
corner-store element -- the cheese sauce
were going to make and the meat --
and the chopped meat. So the scallion oil we used
to marinate some of the meat, it'll help with
the incorporating the spices in, and here we're just going to add
about 1 1/2 tablespoons. Then we're going to take about 3 ounces
of the marinated ground beef. And you want it to sizzle.
You want this to caramelize. You want the spices in here,
the Korean chili flakes and the Old Bay to cook out
into the oil. And you can tell by the color of
the oil when it starts
to take on more of a red color. All right, so now I'm going
to add in the rice cake that we deep fried. ♪♪ Another rice cake is gonna
soak in some of that
flavored beef fat. Now I'm going to hit this with
the miso sauce, about half a tablespoon. It's honestly
to your liking. Now I'm going to
hit this with some labneh, and I added labneh in here because it's something
that I had in my kitchen. We use it for our
Honey Butter Tater Tots, and I figured,
"Why not? It's dairy." So this looks like
very expensive American cheese. ♪♪ Yeah, that tastes --
That tastes expensive. That tastes like --
That tastes like money. I'm going to add one
and a half slices. I'm gonna add in some of
these soy-pickled jalapeños. Just a touch of this -- this
juice, the pickling liquid. It's coming together, guys. Bring it back together again. All right.
I'm going to plate it. ♪♪ Alright, so now
I'm going to garnish this -- scallion from Faraday's Garden. Because the dish is so, like,
rich and heavy, you can add the scallions like
the only fresh thing in here. So you don't have to be
like super shy with it. Crispy shallot,
some sesame seed, more of that Asian element. You see this,
you automatically think, "Okay. This has to be Asian."
So it's a visual help. some Parmigiano-Reggiano. That's it. I present to you Korean New York food -- chopped cheese rice cakes. ♪♪ All right. So, let's taste this
chopped cheese rice cake. Little bit of everything. Yo. Feels like -- dare I say? --
pasta dish. This dish feels very homey
to me as a Korean-American, but also tastes like
New York to me. Do you want a bite? I know you do, and I want to give you
this bite. Come visit me and Nowon and taste the real thing
cooked in a wok. Go support your corner store.
Support your neighborhood. We'll get through this, y'all. With love and respect.
Peace. ♪♪ -I'm really hungover.
-You want a beer? -I think that's gonna help,
honestly. -What were you drinking last
night? Soju, Korean beer,
whiskey, tequila. ♪♪ -Support your neighborhood. We'll get through this, y'all. With love and respect.
Peace. I'm really hungover.
-You want a beer? -I think that's gonna help,
honestly. -What were you drinking
last night? -Soju, Korean beer,
whiskey, tequila.
