Woo Can Cook | Korean Spicy Rice Cakes (Tteokboki)
Woo Can Cook | Korean Spicy Rice Cakes (Tteokboki)
by WooCanCook
2 Comments
WooCanCook
hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to Korean comfort food classics with a shot at the Korean tteokboki spicy rice cake. For those unfamiliar, tteokboki is a dish that most prominently makes use of gochugaru chili flake and gochujang chili paste to create its fire-y red sauce element, which is then used to simmer and coat our rice cakes, known as “tteok.” Those following along may recognize that this is certainly not the first time that we have made use of these cylindrical rice cakes. A few weeks back we used the same cakes in our buldak recipe, as well as our rabokki recipe some time ago too.
Maybe more interestingly though, the Korean “tteok” rice cake is also the same cake that we refer to in Chinese cuisine as “nian gao,” meaning that we’ll be able to find these rice cakes in both Chinese and korean grocery stores, which is very useful. Traditionally, a tteokboki would be assembled by simmering the tteok in a dashi soup stock, using the slow simmer to draw out the starches of the rice cake to yield our thick and luxurious sauce element. For our version today however, I thought I’d toy around with making some crispy fried tteok, meaning that we’ll be first wok searing out rice cakes before adding them to our simmer, yielding a fun crispy, crunchy quality to our tteokboki. Hope you try it. [**Follow the full video on youtube**](https://youtu.be/yLOxA9ti25o) for the whole story too!
**Woo Can Cook** is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.
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**PREP** – CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside – FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside – SLICE the green onions into planks, set aside – SLICE the onions, set aside – SLICE the fish cakes into squares, set aside – REHYDRATE the tteok in boiling water for 5 minutes, then strain and set aside – COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
**ON THE STOVE** – BOIL all dashi stock ingredients for a minimum of 20 minutes, or ideally 1 hour – REMOVE the dashi stock solids, then set aside – HEAT a wok over medium heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao – ADD the tteok 15 pieces at a time, then sear for 2 minutes undisturbed before tossing and searing for an additional minute – REHEAT the wok as hot as possible, then add the garlic and ginger and bloom for 15 seconds until fragrant – ADD the onions and fish cake, then toss to combine for 1-2 minutes – ADD the green onions, dashi stock, and sauce mixture, then stir to combine – ADD the tteok and simmer for 5 minutes until a thick sauce forms – FINISH with sesame seeds
lbell1145
Looks delicious, I’ll definitely have to give it a shot sometime. Is it not necessary to remove the head and guts on the anchovies because you’re using so few? Or is its necessity overblown on all the other recipes I’ve seen?
2 Comments
hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we’re diving back into our series dedicated to Korean comfort food classics with a shot at the Korean tteokboki spicy rice cake. For those unfamiliar, tteokboki is a dish that most prominently makes use of gochugaru chili flake and gochujang chili paste to create its fire-y red sauce element, which is then used to simmer and coat our rice cakes, known as “tteok.” Those following along may recognize that this is certainly not the first time that we have made use of these cylindrical rice cakes. A few weeks back we used the same cakes in our buldak recipe, as well as our rabokki recipe some time ago too.
Maybe more interestingly though, the Korean “tteok” rice cake is also the same cake that we refer to in Chinese cuisine as “nian gao,” meaning that we’ll be able to find these rice cakes in both Chinese and korean grocery stores, which is very useful. Traditionally, a tteokboki would be assembled by simmering the tteok in a dashi soup stock, using the slow simmer to draw out the starches of the rice cake to yield our thick and luxurious sauce element. For our version today however, I thought I’d toy around with making some crispy fried tteok, meaning that we’ll be first wok searing out rice cakes before adding them to our simmer, yielding a fun crispy, crunchy quality to our tteokboki. Hope you try it. [**Follow the full video on youtube**](https://youtu.be/yLOxA9ti25o) for the whole story too!
**Woo Can Cook** is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.
**Homebase** (Recipes, Livestream Schedule, Music and more): [Woo Can Cook](https://WooCanCook.com)
**Recipes**: [Woo Can Cook (Youtube)](https://youtube.com/woocancook?sub_confirmation=1)
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**Woo Can Cook Fried Rice Pop Up (Every Thurs-Sun @ Wondrous Brewing!)**: https://WooCanCook.com/eats
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**RECIPE**
https://woocancook.com/tteokboki
**INGREDIENTS**
– 4 cloves garlic
– 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) fine minced ginger
– 3 green onions
– 1/2 medium white onion
– 4oz fish cake
– 8oz tteok
– sesame seeds
– peanut oil
**INGREDIENTS (sauce)**
– 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
– 1 tbsp rice vinegar
– 1 tbsp mirin
– 1 tbsp brown sugar
– 1 tbsp gochugaru
– 3 tbsp gochujang
**INGREDIENTS (dashi stock)**
– 2 cups water
– 1 sheet kombu
– 4-6 dried anchovy
**PREP**
– CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
– FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
– SLICE the green onions into planks, set aside
– SLICE the onions, set aside
– SLICE the fish cakes into squares, set aside
– REHYDRATE the tteok in boiling water for 5 minutes, then strain and set aside
– COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
**ON THE STOVE**
– BOIL all dashi stock ingredients for a minimum of 20 minutes, or ideally 1 hour
– REMOVE the dashi stock solids, then set aside
– HEAT a wok over medium heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
– ADD the tteok 15 pieces at a time, then sear for 2 minutes undisturbed before tossing and searing for an additional minute
– REHEAT the wok as hot as possible, then add the garlic and ginger and bloom for 15 seconds until fragrant
– ADD the onions and fish cake, then toss to combine for 1-2 minutes
– ADD the green onions, dashi stock, and sauce mixture, then stir to combine
– ADD the tteok and simmer for 5 minutes until a thick sauce forms
– FINISH with sesame seeds
Looks delicious, I’ll definitely have to give it a shot sometime. Is it not necessary to remove the head and guts on the anchovies because you’re using so few? Or is its necessity overblown on all the other recipes I’ve seen?