Petite Patties Korean Style

One of my roommates is in dental school and for the past couple months she’s been busy preparing for the board exams.  We’ve been living together for two years now and have shared quite a few food memories.  We occasionally make dinners, go out for Restaurant Week, and even took a couple of cooking classes together!

  

When she asked me if I could pack her lunch on the day of her board exams I was happy to do it.  I kind of felt like a mom sending her kid off to take the SATs.  I couldn’t sleep the night before because I planned to cook in the morning so the food would be nice and fresh.  I was afraid I might not wake up in time, which is silly because I’m one of those people who don’t need an alarm to get up.  I kept on looking at my clock throughout the night and finally at 6 am (1 hour before I planned to wake up) I got out of bed and started cooking.

  

This is really one of those recipes that you could put together half asleep because the measurements don’t need to be exact.  You can follow the recipe to the T or you can add a little more or little less of any ingredient.  If there is one tricky part to the dish it’s frying the patties to the right color.  They’re supposed to be a sweet, soft yellow but mine always turned out a little too brown.  That’s a skill I’m still working on, knowing when to flip and how high/low to turn on the heat.  The patties should be about one and a half inches in diameter and about half an inch thick.  In my family we call them dong-guh-lang-ddeng, 동그랑땡, which I think is the Korean word for meatball, but to me they look more like little patties.

These patties are very different from the American hamburger patty.  It’s not as juicy or greasy, but softer in texture and in taste.  Dip them in soy sauce to give it a nice salty counterpart.

Petite Patties Korean Style

Serves 4

1 pound ground beef
2 cups tofu, crumbled
1/2 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 stalk green onion, chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Flour, to dredge
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil for frying

Crumble the tofu and squeeze in a paper towel to drain excess liquid.  Mix the ground beef, tofu, chopped onion, carrot, green onion, and seasonings together.  Heat a non stick skillet on medium heat and pour canola oil. Shape beef and tofu mixture into small, 1 1/2 inch patties.  Dredge in flour and then coat with the beaten eggs.  Cook for a few minutes on each side.  The egg coating should turn a soft, golden yellow.

Serve with rice.