Let’s Spice It Up Tonight with Ojingeo Bokkeum – Korean Spicy Stir-Fried Squid

More Pure Seoul Food…

It’s warming up out there but the nights are still a bit nippy and we’re still enjoying some of our cold weather favorites. Tonight would be the night to prepare a dinner that has some heat to it, something that could put a little sweat on your brow, a tear to your eye and give the old taste buds a good slap in the face! Something to really make you feel alive at the end of winter: Ojingeo Bokkeum (spicy stir fried squid) will fit the bill perfectly.

There are lots of versions of this dish, different vegetables are used, most include carrots and onions, and some have mushrooms or zucchini. I used carrots, scallions, zucchini, Korean green chilies and onions. The sauce uses gochujang (Korean hot chili paste) and gochugaru (Korean chili flakes). I picked up these ingredients, along with the green chilies and some homemade Kimchi at the Galleria Asian Market here in Ann Arbor.

The cleaned squid we carry are excellent quality and come from Rhode Island. Today’s recipe calls for scoring the squid body; this will make the pieces curl and all the slices from scoring will hold the sauce (check out our video on cleaning and scoring). The video shows cutting the scored squid into triangles but this recipe calls for rectangles, which look pretty cool curled up in the gorgeous red sauce with the orange and green of the veggies. This dish is delicious and definitely has some heat to it. If you’d like to tone it down a bit, back off on the fresh chilies (or don’t include them) and the chili flakes. Adjust the sauce to taste and get ready to feel warm again.

Enjoy this recipe!