Rice cakes with a sweet/spicy sauce

I was browsing around for something yummy, easy and Asian last night and stumbled upon a recipe for stir fried rice cake in a spicy sauce. I was going to Young's Oriental Store in Newark, DE, near our apartment, today so I thought I would give this a whirl, I know its not things you would have on hand normally but based on where I live (DelaWHERE?) I think most people could get the ingredients at a local Asian grocery store.

The finished dish I loved but still thought it was just a bit too spicy so I ended up sprinkling some brown sugar on top and it worked wonders. I really liked this dish more than the ones I found looking around because many were made with Sriracha sauce and were red colored in the finished dish, this made it a bit unappealing to me because it looked soooo flipping spicy. 

By the way, don't you just love my gingerbread man and peppermint salt and pepper shakers?! I found them 2 years ago at a cracker barrel and had to have them.

So I changed the sauce completely to my taste and kept most every thing else but changed cooking methods a lot. Ok .. I took the recipe and took a mad dash with it lol but it came out amazing so I'm glad I changed it completely.

1 bag frozen rice cakes (The noodle shaped ones not the oval slices)

2 heaping table spoons hot chili sauce (not as hot as sriracha, but still a kick in the mouth)(Mine were in packets but you can get it in a jar/bottle)

1 cup of water (its split up in the cooking process though)

5 cloves crushed garlic, I used Trader Joe's frozen ones

3 table spoons light brown sugar

3 table spoons dark brown sugar

2 table spoons sesame oil

Sprinkling of sesame seeds

*1/2 an onion slices thinly and frozen (on a paper plate is easiest)

*1 spring onion slices and frozen too on the same plate

* 3 leaves of cabbage ripped up into bite sized pieces with the "spines" removed and thrown out

*4 sheets of defrosted fish cake cut into strips and then triangles, re freeze with cabbage

*It takes about 30 minutes to freeze.

So We had a dinner party last night and all the cutting boards were used up and in the dish washer, so my vegetables and fish cakes were cut in a take out container and paper plates. : / I was too impatient to wait for my super slow washer machine to finish.

In a non stick skillet add hot chili paste, garlic, sugars, sesame oil and seeds. Mix it all up then add 1/2 water, bring the mix to a boil. Add frozen onions stir up and cover for 5 minutes.

When time is up uncover and add in the frozen cabbage and fish cakes, mix it all up and cover again for 5 minutes.

When the time is up add a 1/4 cup of water and the de-frosted rice cakes and mix it up and cover for 10 minutes.

DON'T STIR! Let it simmer on med low heat the entire time and only mix when you add an ingredient. Other wise when it covered don't take the lid off anytime to stir the recipe up.

Once the timer goes off remove lid and stir up the bottom and you should get some pieces that are nice a dark brown and crispy, like this....

Add 1/4 cup of water to the drying up mix and stir it up and serve.

As I said before I sprinkled like 1 teaspoon of sugar on top to even out the spiciness. next time I will level out my table spoons of hot chili paste : )

Oh And check out my not so helpful kitchen helper Lucy.

Honey was off lounging on my antique chair.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe I'll have another one tomorrow or Wednesday with twice cooked pork belly. I'm making it tomorrow for dinner with my parents coming over but I don't know if I'll have the time to post tomorrow night or not.