Sauteed Dried Shrimp or Maleun Saewoo Bokkeum is a great Korean side dish that is great in lunch boxes or just as a snack. High in calcium so it’s great food for kids!
This is a dish I made kind of on the fly but my daughter loved it so much that I decided to make a recipe of it. Hopefully, she can make it on her own someday… This dried shrimp is great because it has a high calcium content due to the fact that you eat the shells as well. Some may worry that shrimp have high cholesterol but there are studies that shows shrimp raises the good cholesterol(HDL) even more- so it’s not bad at all. (Article on shrimp cholesterol) So, I made a big batch and sent it back with her when she left for school. Being on your own, away from home, really makes it difficult to eat healthy and I hope my recipes can help our daughters/sons get into cooking for themselves as much as they can.
Another good thing about Korean side dishes (most of them anyway) is that you can make a large amount and eat it over time which means you end up saving time overall. So think about making it…
My Tips on Bokkeum side dishes:
Sauteing or making 볶음 side dishes can be a bit tricky because it’s so easy to burn them. So keep stirring things around to prevent burning and also to ensure that they are cooked evenly. Don’t hesitate to lower the heat if you feel you are too overwhelmed! It usually works well to lower the heat before you add any sauce or sugar so always remember that. Then after the seasonings are all mixed in, you can raise the heat again and you are now ready to stir things around without burning it.
Also, having things a little browned and crispy always makes these dry sauteed dishes taste really good so remember to cook a little bit extra at the end. And as always – remember to taste in between seasonings!
How to buy good quality dried shrimp for Korean side dish
Some dried shrimps have their heads attached which can be quite prickly. If that’s the case, you should sauté the shrimp first in a pan without oil for couple minutes, put it into a towel and then rub the shrimp in towel to brush off the prickly stuff.
The shrimp that I bought from my local market ( Samho 삼호 is the brand) have the heads removed which makes things easy. So try to buy the same kind if you can. Also taste the dried shrimp before you cook – they should taste good even at this stage. They should not be too dry or tasteless which means they are probably too old or of poor quality.
Korean Dried Shrimp Recipe (Maleun Saewoo Bokkeum) Recipe
Difficulty: Easy Prep time: 3 min Cooking Time: 10-15 min Servings:8
Sauce
1 T soy sauce (JinGanjang) + 1 T sugar + 1 T cooking sake or mirin
Directions
- Make the sauce ahead in a separate bowl by adding and mixing 1 T each of soy sauce, sugar and sake (or mirin).
sweet soy sauce mix - Heat 2 T of oil in a frying pan over med high heat.
- When the oil is hot (when it flows around like water), add the shrimp to the pan and sauté for 3 min.
Shrimp sauteed in oil - Lower heat to medium and sprinkle 3 T of sugar all around and sauté for another 3 min.
sugar added - Lower heat to low and sprinkle the sauce (made in step 1) all around the shrimp so that it’s all nicely mixed. Continue mixing and sauteing for 3 more minutes.
- Drizzle 1 T of rice syrup (조청) or maple syrup on the shrimp mixture. Turn heat up to medium and continue stirring and frying for 2 minutes or until they look nicely browned like the pic below:
Shrimp with sauce added and cooked to perfection! Well, that’s it! You can save these in room temperature for a week or more and much longer in the fridge but won’t taste as good. This served as a great side dish for the lunch I made with Miyeok Gook.
Sauteed Dried Shrimp (Maleun Saewoo Bokkeum)
Great Korean side dish made with small dried shrimps. Good for lunchboxes.Prep: 3 minutesCook: 10 minutesTotal Time: 13 minutesserves: 4Ingredients
- 5 oz dried pink shrimp (about 3 cups in volume)
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (neutral flavored)
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp rice syrup (조청 Jochung, or maple syrup)
Sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce (Jin Ganjang)
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp cooking sake or mirin
Instructions
- Make the sauce ahead in a separate bowl by adding and mixing 1 T each of soy sauce, sugar and sake (or mirin).
- Heat oil in a frying pan over med high heat.
- When oil is hot (when it flows around like water), add the shrimp to the pan and sauté for 3 min.
- Lower heat to medium and sprinkle sugar evenly on shrimp and sauté for another 3 min.
- Lower heat to low and sprinkle the sauce (made in step 1) all around the shrimp so that it’s all nicely mixed. Continue mixing and sauteing for 3 more minutes.
- Drizzle rice syrup (조청) or maple syrup on the shrimp mixture. Turn heat up to medium and continue stirring and frying for 2 minutes or until they look nicely browned.
Tips & Notes:
You can save these in room temperature for a week or more and much longer in the fridge but won't taste as good. This served as a great side dish for the lunch I made with Miyeok Gook.Nutrition Information:
Calories: 256kcal (13%)| Carbohydrates: 20g (7%)| Protein: 27g (54%)| Fat: 8g (12%)| Cholesterol: 403mg (134%)| Sodium: 1535mg (67%)| Potassium: 9mg| Sugar: 19g (21%)| Calcium: 145mg (15%)| Iron: 2.7mg (15%)
Hello .. i don’t use alcohol in my food preparations ..what can i use instead and will it taste different?.thanks for such a lovely looking shrimp recipe..shrimp are a favorite in my family ..
You can just use a bit of water + white grape juice or just water + apple juice. Enjoy
Hi! I love this recipe but instead of mirin or sake, what alternatives i could use?
Hi,
You could use white wine (less fragrant ones) and add a bit more sugar. Or just use water and a bit more sugar – that should work too. Hope it turns out good! Good luck!
Hi Thanks very much for the recipe. Do you wash/rinse the shrimp before you cook them?
No, no need to rinse the shrimp. Actually I think it would be better not to. You could toss it in a sieve a few times to maybe get rid of some powdery stuff if you think that’s needed. You are very welcome and thank you for asking!
I’ve noticed that snacks fom the Korean supermarket have fructo-oligo-saccharide on them instead of sugar or mirin. I suspected this and checked my blood glucose response to the snacks like spicy anchovies, various other fish, octopus slice, etc. No blood sugar response at all, which is to be expected. FOS syrup is very sweet but performs in the body like a soluble fibre. Large amounts can cause discomfort from the colon where bacteria digest it..
Do you use this syrup in your cooking?
I have the nice dried shrimps at home right now and will follow your recipe with reduced sugar. Next time I may try that syrup. Moderately.
Korean food is wonderful. .The spicy anchovies are fabulous. Addictive.
Great question! I actually don’t use fructo-oligo-saccharide in my cooking. I know that many Koreans use a variation of oligo-saccharide(often just labled Oligodang 올리고당) in their cooking instead of corn syrup these days but in general, I’m just not a fan of using anything less than 100% natural with minimal artificial process involved. And from what I’ve read, there’s research that shows FOS actually irritates the bowel so not sure if that’s a good thing. For sweetness, I only use organic sugar, maple syrup, honey and rice syrup(jochung조청). Korean rice syrup is made by basically cooking rice and milled malt barley together. You can use maple syrup instead of jochung – that should work OK too. Thank you SO much for asking. I am currently working on an ebook of HOW to buy Korean ingredients – FAQ and I think I will include this in there!
And haha.. yes, anchovies, I think I wrote in my post that my husband keeps eating them even before dinner is ready…Have a great weekend~
These shrimps are terribly addictive! I made them tonight. They came out darker than yours because I used muscovado sugar (that’s all I had) and at the end used honey. The shrimp were the headless type, like yours.
The balance of sweet and salt makes them one of those snack type foods that if you eat one, then you eat two and then…..threefourfivesix….. no wonder your daughter loves to eat these.
Thanks for the recipe.
This one is tricky. The first time I tried making a smaller quantity and after adding the sugar, the sugar burned (no matter how low I turned the heat) The second batch was larger and I ignored the times and just went by how things looked. That worked better but it’s still not right. When I finish these off (which will be pretty fast, they’re awfully good) I will buy more shrimp and try again. My future daughter-in-law loved them. I was afraid she wouldn’t leave me any, like she does with the lotus root!
Yes, you’re right. It’s a bit tricky..You certainly want the sugar to brown a bit but not burn of course. You can even turn the heat off if you feel it’s too hot. Everyone’s stove temps are different so you did the right thing by just cooking by feel. Glad you liked it!
This dish is marvelous. I ignored all the timing especially because I only had half the amount of these shrimp. I used my eyes AND my mouth, tasting every here and there to see how they were crisping. Once my frequent mixing and stir frying got me to a crispy result, I adding in the sugar where it was now time to keep those babies moving constantly since sugar contributes to browning. Once it began to brown a bit more it was time to add maple syrup since I sadly discovered I was all out of my rice syrup. I kept it moving and it short time it was even a little deeper. I removed it quickly from the flame and kept it moving still (hot pan). So lovely. Thank you for the awesome recipe.
So wonderful to hear that you enjoyed this recipe. It sounds you did everything right and you were very smart to use maple syrup in lieu of rice syrup. I actually like using maple syrup for my myeolchi bokkeum (dried anchovy banchan) instead of mul-yeot or corn syrup like most Korean recipes do. Thank you so much for kind comment. Have a great day!