Tteokbokki: Learn To Make This Korean Street Food

Tteokbokki is a popular Korean street food snack comprised mostly of spicy, sour gochujang chilli paste and chewy rice cakes. Slices of fried eomuk fish cake, cabbage, scallions, and garlic are tossed with the cakes. Gochujang is enhanced with salty anchovy stock, and gochugaru chilli flakes give even more spice. The finished dish is blatantly hot and spicy but impossible to put down. Enjoy it while sipping on a nice, inexpensive beer for the ideal Friday night supper. 

Spicy, savoury, astringent, and sweet. Tteokbokki is saucy, delectable comfort food in a bowl that will make you break out in a happy sweat. It is enticing to the eye and delightfully explosive to the palate. Korean rice cakes have a delectably pleasing soft chewiness, and the addictively hot chillies make you fall in love faster than your mind can handle it. You may make a tasty supper by adding some crisp green onions and salty fishcakes. 

Prepare Anchovy Broth 

Dried anchovies, a traditional ingredient in Korean cuisine, provide tteokbokki its foundational umami savoriness. This dish makes use of a handmade broth that combines toasted dried anchovies, salty dried kelp, and sweet, earthy dried shiitake mushrooms to create a mild fishy flavour. There are dashi packets available online that might be a decent substitution if dried anchovies and kelp are unavailable at your neighbourhood retailers. If you run out of homemade broth, you can instead use water, vegetable broth, or chicken broth. 

Add Spice 

This meal contains both gochujang, a Korean red chilli pepper paste, and gochugaru, a Korean red chilli pepper flakes, which both add heat. Gochujang has flavours of sweetness, salt, heat, and a fragrant fermented note of glutinous rice. Gochugaru is a pepper that falls in between regular crushed red pepper flakes and Aleppo pepper; it is not just hot but also fragrantly smokey, sweet, and has a smell similar to a newly cut green bell pepper. Depending on your preference, feel free to adjust the quantity of the hot components. 

Sweet and Tangy 

Add one tablespoon of honey to the sauce to counteract the heat and give it extra shine. You can use any kind of sugar you prefer or have on hand, including granulated, brown, corn syrup, and brown rice syrup. Add a few teaspoons of vinegar to give the mixture a savoury, ketchup-like kick and to brighten it up. 

Extras 

It is often advised to use fish cakes in tteokbokki. Still, you can truly add whatever you like at home to bulk out the dish. For instance, you might add cabbage, a block of instant ramen, cooked eggs, or any leftover kelp, anchovies, or mushrooms from creating the broth for zero-waste cooking. 

Recipe:  

Ingredients: 

For Anchovy Broth 

1 oz. dried anchovies, gutted (about 40 small anchovies) 

6 cup water 

12 dried shiitake mushrooms 

6" square piece dried kelp 

3/4 tsp kosher salt 

For Tteokbokki 

1 lb Korean rice cakes 

1 tbsp grapeseed oil 

1 tbsp gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes) 

1/4 tsp gochujang (Korean red chili pepper paste) 

2 large cloves garlic, minced 

1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce 

2 tsp white vinegar 

1 tbsp honey 

2 to 3 cup anchovy broth, divided 

6 oz Korean fish cakes, cut into bite-sized triangles 

3 green onions, sliced into 2" pieces, plus more for garnish 

1 tsp toasted sesame oil 

Toasted sesame seeds, for garnish 

Method:  

Making homemade anchovy broth is simple, toast anchovies in a sizable pot over medium-low heat for 2 minutes while stirring constantly. Bring to a boil over high heat while adding the salt, water, and mushrooms. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes with the heat reduced to medium-low. Take the mixture off the heat, add the kelp, and let it steep for 10 minutes. If preferred, reserve the kelp, mushrooms, and fish for another purpose before straining. 

In the meanwhile, if using hard, chilled rice cakes: If the cakes are stuck to one another, separate them, then rinse in cool water and drain. 3 cups of hot water should be added to a big basin to cover the cakes. 15 minutes of soaking is required to soften. Drain, then set apart. 

Heat oil in a big pot over medium heat. Stir for a minute, until aromatic, the gochugaru, gochujang, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and honey have been added. Bring to a boil after adding 2 cups of broth. Add the soaked rice cakes and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until they are soft and tender. 

If additional stock is required to thin the sauce to the right consistency, add it. Cook the fish cakes, green onions, and sesame oil for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are tender. Garnish with more green onions and sesame seeds before serving.