Anyeong haseyo! Iv'e been meaning to cook this for a long time but I haven't had the chance. Until yesterday, that is. And yes, I am talking about one of the most popular Korean snacks we see in K-dramas, tteokbokki/ddeokbokki. And believe it or not, cooking it is as easy as 1,2, 3!
This is the finished product, and I enjoyed eating it very much as I have not had it in such a long time. Shall we look at our ingredients then? Good thing we don't have to go to Korea to eat this dish, as there are now numerous Korean restaurants in the country, but it's even better that there are Korean stores where we can buy Korean products and cook their food whenever we crave eating them!
1/2 kilo pack of tteokbokki (which is sticky rice cakes)
2 pcs of fish cakes, or several fish balls
2 stalks of green onions, cut into into 2 inch pcs
1 tablespoon of red chili paste
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon powdered anchovies
2 handfuls of sliced cabbage
In Seoul, the fish cakes are flat and thin, and they also come in skewered and is also a very tasty snack. In BGC though, I found a store that sells frozen Singapore goods, and I bought the fish cake which is thicker than the Korean ones, and I just sliced them into pieces. You can of course use fish balls as well, your choice.
This is the red chili paste. I took a picture of the whole tub just so you have an idea what to buy next time you're at the Korean store.
If you watch Korean dramas, they always make their broth using a few pieces of anchovies and some dried seaweed. As that takes quite some time, I was quite happy to find that there is powdered anchovies available to buy! So I just use this instead for the broth instead.
So I used a tablespoon of the chili paste, a teaspoon of chili flakes and 2 teaspoons of sugar. I mixed that to make a paste like this. Now we can start cooking. I used the chili paste and chili flakes sparingly because I did not want to make it super spicy that no one can eat it. Besides, if you find it bland, you can always add a little bit more while cooking.
I heated up 4 cups of water, then dissolved a heaping teaspoon of the powdered anchovies.
When the water comes to a boil, you start by adding the rice cakes.
Next goes in the paste and stir to dissolve. The water should now be orange looking.
Add the fish cakes, or fish balls, and the green onions and bring it to a boil. Boil it down, stirring occasionally, to make sure the rice cakes do not stick to the pan, until the sauce thickens.
When the sauce is already thick, I add the sliced cabbage, so that it becomes a complete meal.
This is now done. What I cooked is a mild version of the Korean ones. The ones I have tried in Korea are really spicy, the sauce is bright orange!
This was my lunch yesterday, and I must say, I had a smile on my face as I was eating it. As a variation, you can put in boiled eggs as well. In Korea they even add ramyeon to it to make it more filling. So I guess you can add anything you want! Happy cooking!
For more recipes, you can go to this page.
Comments
Post a Comment