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RICE CAKES
ROASTED RED DRAGON SAUCE
ROASTED ONIONS
Make the sauce: Combine the mirin and ramen broth in a saucepan large enough to accommodate the rice cakes later and put it on the stove over high heat. Boil to reduce until lightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the red dragon sauce, turn the heat down to medium, and reduce the sauce to a glossy consistency, 6 to 7 minutes. Stir in the roasted onions. Cover and keep warm over very low heat until the rice cakes are ready.
While the sauce is reducing, heat a large (at least 12-inch) cast-iron skillet (make sure it's wiped really clean, because the white cakes will pick up any schmutz from the pan) over medium-high heat until hot. Add the oil to the pan, and just when it's about to smoke, add the rice cakes. They should sizzle when they hit the oil, at which point you can drop the heat down to medium. Sear the rice cakes for about 3 minutes per side, until they're a light golden brown: you want to brown them, but don't overdo it, or they will dry out. Trans- fer the rice cakes to a cutting board and cut them into fifths.
Bring the sauce back up to a boil and toss the rice cakes in it just for a few seconds, until they're evenly coated. Sprinkle them with the sesame seeds and toss again, then divide the sauced rice cakes among bowls. Garnish each serving with a few large pinches of sliced scallions and serve hot.
NOTE: Rice cakes are made by beating the hell out of cooked rice and then molding the very glutinous, thick results into shapes. We mainly use sliced rice cakes (the oblong coin-shaped disks) in soups and the long sticks or cylinders for other dishes. Cut into shorter lengths, they have a gnocchi-like appeal; charred until brown, they take on an amazing crisp texture and a smoky, deep flavor
ROASTED RED DRAGON SAUCE
Bring the water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes, then stir in the ssämjang to dis- solve it. Stir in the soy, vinegar, and sesame and taste the sauce: no one flavor should stand out, but all should be present and ac- counted for. Adjust as necessary
ROASTED ONIONS
Heat the oil in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat for 1 to 1½ min- utes, until it's very, very hot but not smok- ing. Add the onions to the pan-they will be piled up high, probably to the rim-and let them cook undisturbed for 2 to 3 minutes.
Carefully toss the onions and, while doing so, season them with the salt. Now you've got 50 or so minutes of onion cookery ahead of you, and given all the eccentricities of pans and heat sources and the variables of moisture in the onions, etc., the best I can do is tell you what you're doing and what you're looking for:
RICE CAKES
a. For the first 15 minutes or so, you want the onions at the bottom of the pan to be slowly but steadily taking on color as they sweat out their liquid. The onions above them are helping this happen by virtue of their weight, gently pressing down the onions below. Do not press down on the onions with a spat- ula or jack up the heat to try and accel- erate this process. Just turn the whole pile of onions over on itself every 3 or 4 minutes during the early going to help distribute the tasty, caramelizing juice the onions are oozing throughout the pile.
b. After the mass of onions in the pan has significantly reduced in volume- the onions are softer and suppler and have fallen considerably-it's time to turn the heat to medium-low and ride this baby out for as long as it takes, stirring and turning the onions every 10 minutes or so and making sure that they don't start to stick or burn at any point. This is the part that matters, when the onions soften and sweeten without drying out. Remember: slow and steady wins this race
c. After 50 minutes or so, you're going to be about there. The onions will have shrunk from a pile that threatened mutiny to the stovetop to a huddled mass that doesn't even cover the floor of the pan. They will have a definite sweetness, a deep roasted flavor, and a texture that's just this side of mushy. Use them straightaway, or let them cool and then store, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to a week or longer.