Posted by shinshine

Do you have any leftover sliced tteok after making the rice cake soup (떡국; tteok guk) on New Year’s Day?  Tteok guk is good any day and also one of the best hangover food for me, so I always keep a package of thinly sliced tteok in the freezer.  The thinly sliced, coin-shaped version also cuts down the rubbery texture of the tubular kind of rice cakes which some people are not used to.  This makes the sliced version a good substitute for the tubular kind in making tteokbokki.  Another way to make an easy use of sliced tteok is to make lasagna with it.  Just replace lasagna sheets with thinly sliced tteok, and it adds pleasantly sticky bites to the dish.

Here is a basic lasagna with sliced tteok recipe: Soak sliced tteok in boiling hot water for 5 minutes then drain.  Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C.  Mix ricotta cheese with an egg.  Layer from the bottom of the pan - tomato sauce – bulgogi meat (or thinly sliced beef) – sliced tteok – ricotta-egg mix and repeat the layers one more time.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes.  Top with mozzarella cheese (or mix with grated parmesan) and broil for 5 minutes to melt the cheese on top.  Take the pan out.  Let it rest for a few minutes before serving.

I’ve also used just stracchino cheese which adds slightly tangy flavor (pictures above).  Meat is optional, as well as other bells and whistles of your liking.  Just make sure to start with the sauce at the bottom of the pan and majority of cooking ingredients is done before baking in the oven.  Pick cheeses that stand well as a layer and melt well on top.  At the end of the day, it’s just a fun way to enjoy sliced tteok and lasagna together – a warm, hearty dish on a cold wintry night…

Shinshine grew up in Seoul and has been living in the U.S. roughly the latter half+ of her life.  She’s been living in New York since 2005.  Having switched careers from finance to food, she is now a full-time restaurant cook in New York City after culinary school in 2008.  Recently she started her food diary, www.shinshine.com, which is about three things in life she enjoys the most – food, Korea and New York

Posted by Tammy

새해 복 많이 받으세요! Today is the Lunar New Year, or Seollal (설날), in Korea as well as most of Asia. Our 12-day tteokbokki sauce recipe countdown has come full circle to Gungjung tteokbokki, which is the royal Korean court version of tteokbokki.

Thanks to the Korean TV drama Dae Jang Gum, this dish has become well known all over Asia. Gungjung tteokbokki was a special dish served in royal and noble households back in the days of the Joseon (Chosun) dynasty (1392–1910) on celebration days like the Lunar New Year or during ancestral ceremonies. The dish that people commonly call tteokbokki today with the fiery sauce and fish cakes is a modern, simplified version of this recipe.

There are several Gungjung tteokbokki recipes on the internet. The one most easily accessible to most Americans is posted at Chow, which is the basis of the recipe I made. If you want a downsized version, check out BlogCatalog.

This is the only tteokbokki recipe in which the garae tteok (가래떡) — the fat cylindrical rice noodles traditionally used in tteokbokki — are boiled beforehand and mixed in with the other ingredients quickly at the last minute.

Also notice the additional layers of flavor not seen in some of the other recipes, particularly marinating the meat and mushrooms separately before combining with the other ingredients in the final sauce.

There are two schools of thought on the egg garnish that I decided to use in this recipe. One school says to separate the egg yolk from the white and fry them separately, allow to cool and cut into thin strips, which is the version I use here. The other school says to separate the yolk and white, make the thin omelet and cut them on a diagonal to create diamond shapes.  I had great difficulty cooking the white just right without browning it. Practice will make perfect, someday.

There is one main difference between my version and the Gungjung tteokbokki recipes you will find online or in popular Korean cookbooks. The recipe books recommend using bulgogi type beef. I used ground sirloin in my recipe. I mixed the beef and the shiitake mushrooms in the recommended marinade and let them soak up the marinade for over 10 minutes. Then I  formed the ground beef and mushrooms into tteokbokki-shaped meatballs or sausages.

Main Ingredients
1 package (16 ounces) round (cylindrical) garae tteok (Rice cake)
6 ounces ground beef
1 small carrot, julienned matchstick-style
1 small onion, julienned
1 bunch enoki, separated and rinsed
5 fresh or dried shiitake mushrooms (if dried, pre-soak for 20 minutes and trim “mushy stems“)
3 eggs, yolk and white separated
3 ounces zucchini, seeds removed and julienned matchstick-style
2 ounces mung bean sprouts
1 large spring onion
grapeseed oil for cooking

Meat and mushroom seasoning

2 teaspoons soy sauce
5 shiitake mushrooms, minced
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves fresh garlic (makes 1 teaspoon minced)
1/2 teaspoon doenjang (soybean paste)
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Gungjung Sauce

1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 green onion
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

1. Mince the garlic and place all the meat and mushroom seasoning ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and mix well.
2. Let stand ten minutes before adding the meat and mushrooms to the meat and mushroom seasoning mix. Mix until throughly combined.  Let stand an additional 15-20 minutes. Shape the meat into tteok-sized sausages.
3. Bring a pot of water to a full boil over high heat. Add the rice cake and boil for one minute.
4. Remove the rice cake from the pot and rinse immediately in cold water. Discard the boiled water.
5. Brush the rice noodles with sesame oil.
6. Separate egg yolks from whites.
7. Whip the yolks together.
8. Pour yolks into a hot oiled pan in a thin layer (tilt pan back and forth to cover bottom of pan).
9. Cook the yolks over medium heat until top is just firm but bottom is not browned. Flip and cook 15 to 20 seconds. Remove from heat and let cool.
10. Cut the cooked yolk into thin strips about 1/8 inch wide by 1 1/2 inch long.
11. Repeat steps 7 through 10 with the egg whites.
12. Place all ingredients for the Gungjung sauce into a bowl and mix well.
13. Lightly coat a stir fry pan with cooking oil and heat over medium to high heat.
14. Add beef and mushroom mix to pan and cook on all sides until they are completely cooked so they will hold their shape.
15. Quickly add all other vegetables and stir fry 30 seconds more.
16. Reduce heat to medium, add Gungjung sauce and the garae tteok, and simmer 10 minutes.
17. Garnish with egg strips and nuts then serve.

We have taken tteokbokki around the world and back again. I hope you appreciate this very versatile rice noodle and come up with your own creative ways of cooking it for yourself.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking in 2007 (had to put her college degree to use somehow). Her recipes and articles have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Posted by Tammy

Ottogi Curry is a Korean-Indian fusion recipe developed by Korean food company Ottogi in the late 1960’s. Traditionally cooked up with carrots, onions, potato and juicy chunks of beef, it would not grace the tables of the average Indian home because of the Indian taboo against eating beef.

Koreans have put their own unique spin on curry and they consume lots of it. So today, I’m making a Korean Curry Tteokbokki featuring Ottogi’s hot curry paste mix.

In this version, I’m leaving the potato out since we’re already adding a starch in the form of the Garae tteok noodles.

Here’s my improvised recipe based on the recipe usually posted on the back of the Ottogi curry spice packet.

• 1 package of Ottogi curry
• 5.5 oz beef or pork (to complement the long tteokbokki, I bought the cut for fajitas)
• 3/4 cup of Garae tteok (presoaked in hot water)
• 1 cup onion, sliced thin
• 1/2 cup carrot, sliced thin
• 2 tsp grape seed oil
• 3 1/2 cups water

Cut the beef,onion, and carrot into slices, then saute lightly in grape seed oil. Add 3 cups of water to the vegetables and bring back to boil. Mix curry powder with 1/2 cup of water until it’s a moist paste and then add the curry paste to the rest of the mixture and continue simmer until the beef is nearly cooked. Add the Garae tteok and cook for an additional 5-10 minutes until the Garae tteok are ready.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking in 2007 (had to put her college degree to use somehow). Her recipes and articles have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Posted by: Tammy

As we cross the Pacific, the next stop for tteokbokki inspiration is Hawaii. America’s 50th state is also the first place many Asian immigrants settled in the 19th century.

Hawaiian cuisine is synonymous with Asian fusion cooking as immigrants from Japan, Samoa, Portugal, the Philippines, China and Korea settled there mixing the culinary traditions of their respective homelands with indigenous ingredients to create a unique and iconic cuisine.

Today’s tteokbokki recipe features a simple Hawaiian sauce

First step, start by soaking your Garae tteok in a hot water bath (not boiling water) for 10 minutes (check the instructions on the package of tteok you bought at the Korean grocery store for recommendations on this step). While the noodles are soaking, you can start on the sauce.

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, minced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp. curry powder
14 oz Coconut Milk or milk
2 oz soju
1 tsp. garlic sea salt
1 tsp. ground ginger or ginger juice
3 tbs. soy sauce

Put 1 tbsp coconut oil into your skillet. Sautee the onions until they are translucent. Add the garlic and sautee for a minute more. Add the rest of the the ingredients into the skillet. After the sauce starts to bubble, add the garae tteok and cook for about 5-10 more minutes until the noodles are cooked to your satisfaction.

If you really need some protein, add a can or two of chopped Spam or Ham to the recipe during the last 5 minutes of cooking to heat it up to maintain the Hawaiian spirit of the dish.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in San Francisco. Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking two years ago (had to put her college degree to use somehow). Her recipes (mostly in video form) have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Buffalo Chicken Tteokbokki

The Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York is the undisputed home of Buffalo Chicken Wings. Their sweet, fiery sauce is often imitated, but never duplicated, at least until the Anchor Bar decided to start bottling the sauce in large quantities for sale.

A friend of mine brought me a bottle of Buffalo sauce direct from Buffalo, NY (thanks Cynthia) and I’m using this as the basis of my latest fusion tteokbokki recipe.

The first step in any tteokbokki recipe is to pre-soak the noodles in hot water for about 10 minutes (but consult the Garae tteok package and follow those directions).

Put the butter in the skillet set on medium heat.

Add the soaked and dried tteok and fry for about 5 minutes. Flip over and fry on the other side, until golden-brown. Set aside.

Add the chicken and saute until it’s about 1/2 cooked. Increase the temperature to medium high.

Pour the buffalo wing sauce into your skillet, add the celery and cook for about 5 minutes . Add the tteokbokki noodles and cook for about 5 minutes more until the noodles are cooked.

Serve with an optional cup of bleu cheese or ranch dressing on the side for dipping.

Posted by Tammy

If Koreans are the kings (and queens) of Far-East Asian BBQ, then Texas reigns supreme as far as American BBQ is concerned. With heavy Spanish, Czech and German influences, Texas BBQ is bold and full of flavor. The Texan tradition of slow smoked BBQ is the opposite of the Korean quick grilling but the Texan method of BBQ forces the toughest cuts of beef to submit in tender submission.

The traditional Korean way of making tteokbokki reminds many ex-pats of gnocchi’s chewey texture. Some Americans have an aversion to tteokbokki because of the texture of the noodles. However, I like them either way.  If you want to try something different frying the tteok noodles before making the sauce will give the tteok a crispy exterior. Most of the recipes I have shown so far cook the noodles to more of an “al dente” texture. If you like the Korean tteokbokki texture, you need to cook the noodles a bit longer, 10-15 minutes.

I found this Texan BBQ sauce recipe at PepperFool.com.

Before you start making the sauce, soak your Garae tteok in a hot water bath (not boiling water) for 10 minutes (check the instructions on the package of tteok you bought at the Korean grocery store for recommendations on this step). Dry them off.

3 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced
3 ribs celery, finely chopped
1 cup ketchup (find a brand without high-fructose corn syrup, such as Heinz Organic Ketchup)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce (or A-1 sauce)
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon Mexican style chili powder, or to taste

In a large, preheated skillet, add the grapeseed oil. Next you add the soaked and dried tteok and fry for about 5 minutes. Flip over and fry on the other side, until golden-brown. Remove from the skillet and set aside.
Add onion, garlic and celery. Cook and stir until onion is tender.
Stir in ketchup, vinegar, 1 1/2 cups water and Worcestershire sauce.
Add bay leaves and black pepper.
Stir a small amount of sauce into chili powder and blend well.
Stir chili mixture into sauce.
Allow the sauce to simmer for about 5 minutes.
Return the tteok to the sauce and simmer for 5-7 more minutes
Remove bay leaves.
Serve immediately.

You will have leftover sauce after the noodles are gone. If you want to use up the rest of the sauce, you can saute 1 lb of lean ground beef, combine with the remaining sauce and make yourself some Texan-style Sloppy Joes.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in San Francisco.  Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for my Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking two years ago (had to put her college degree to use somehow).  Her recipes (mostly in video form) have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Today, I’m bringing tteokbokki to the new world, first stop in Mexico. Due to the labor-intensive nature of traditional Mexican mole sauces, I didn’t make this mole from scratch. The mole that Americans recognize is Mole Poblano.

Wikipedia says, “Mole poblano is prepared with dried chili peppers (commonly ancho, pasilla, mulato and chipotle), ground nuts and/or seeds (almonds, indigenous peanuts, and/or sesame seeds), spices, Mexican chocolate (cacao ground with sugar and cinnamon and occasionally nuts), salt, and a variety of other ingredients including charred avocado leaves, onions, and garlic. Dried seasonings such as ground oregano are also used. In order to provide a rich thickness to the sauce, bread crumbs or crackers are added to the mix.”

Before you start making the sauce, soak your Garae tteok in a hot water bath (not boiling water) for 10 minutes (check the instructions on the package of tteok you bought at the Korean grocery store for recommendations on this step). Dry them off.

Here are the ingredients

1 lb Garae tteok noodles (presoaked)
1/4 cup Mole Poblano paste
1 cup chicken stock
1 lb chicken thighs, diced
1 tbsp grapeseed oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds for a garnish

Sautee the chicken thighs, garlic and onion in grapeseed oil until the chicken is about halfway cooked. Add the chicken stock and mole paste. Once the mole sauce has returned to a boil, put in the tteok and cook for an additional 5-7 minutes until the tteok is cooked.

Notice that the sauce has an appearance similar to Jjajangmyun (Korean Black Bean Paste Noodles). This recipe could make an interesting North American alternative for Jjajangmyun when “Black Day” comes around on April 14. Something to think about.

Posted by Tammy

Today’s tteokbokki recipe keeps us on the Italian peninsula by using Bologna’s famous sauce as the wardrobe for the tteok noodles.

When I lived in Korea, I did not know much about cooking. My cooking skills was limited to grilled cheese sandwiches and the occasional one pot meal, usually featuring a couple of chicken breasts thrown in a rice cooker with 2 cups of rice mixed with random spices thrown in for flavor.

The last 3 months or so I lived in Korea, we had a Korean woman who made lunch for us every day. When she wasn’t making Korean foods like japchae, she was making some kind of Korean fusion recipe (with interesting results). When she made this sauce for us, I though the diced carrots were a Korean innovation. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered Spaghetti Bolognese and realized why the carrots were there. Our Korean cook was right, I was the babo.

There’s only difference between this recipe and hers. I remember our Korean cooks version was a bit sweeter (maybe because she didn’t put wine in her sauce) than the version I have here.  Hubby liked mine better.

There’s only one difference between this recipe and hers. I remember our Korean cook’s version was a bit sweeter — maybe because she didn’t put wine in her sauce — than the version I have here. Hubby liked mine better though.

1 carrot, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 pound ground beef
2 cans (15 ounce) tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup red wine (use a brand you’d actually drink, not “cooking wine”)
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons basil
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon lemon peel, grated
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon thyme, dry
salt and pepper to taste
1 pound garae tteok, presoaked

1. Soak garae tteok (가래떡), which are the fat cylindrical rice noodles traditionally used in tteokbokki, in a hot water bath — not boiling water — for 10 minutes. (Check the instructions on the package of tteok noodles you bought at the Korean grocery store or Asian supermarket for recommendations on this step.)
2. Saute carrots, garlic, onion, celery and green pepper in oil on medium high heat.
3. Add ground beef and brown. Drain fat.
4. Add tomato sauce, water, red wine, sugar and Italian seasoning. Cover sauce and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. During the last five to 10 minutes of cooking time, add the garae tteok and simmer until they’re tender.

The leftover sauce — if there is any — will match well with any pasta, particularly penne.

Tammy Quackenbush lives in San Francisco.  Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for my Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking two years ago (had to put her college degree to use somehow).  Her recipes (mostly in video form) have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.

Posted by Tammy

Arrabiata sauce is an Italian pasta sauce. The word “arrabiata” literally means “angry sauce” and comes from the southern part of the Italian peninsula. This is the first Italian (and probably only) Italian sauce I’ve made that might make a Korean sweat (or want to blow their nose).

First, soak your garae tteok soak in a hot water bath (not boiling water) for 10 minutes (check the instructions on the package of tteok you bought at the Korean grocery store for recommendations on this step). While the garae tteok are soaking, start on your Arrabiata sauce.

Warning: Several of the recipes for Arrabiata sauce I read start off something like this: “Saute the gochugaru and red pepper flakes in about 3 tbsp. olive oil. Add garlic and saute until you start to smell garlic in your kitchen.” I’d say do this at your own risk. Unless you have a commercial kitchen with a heavy-duty fan, you will mace yourself and your family (and possibly set off your fire alarm) and that’s not a good first step unless you want your spouse, children and family pets to be very angry with you.

Here are the ingredients

1 lb garae tteok noodles (presoaked)
1 teaspoon Korean pepper powder (gochugaru) or hot paprika
1 teaspoon Italian red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons Olive oil
5 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup red wine (use a wine that you’d actually drink)
1 can (14 1/2 oz) chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste

Start with approximately 3 tbsp. olive oil in your sauce pan. Add garlic and saute until you start to smell garlic in your kitchen. Add the onions and saute them until they are nearly translucent. At this point, add the gochugaru, Italian red pepper flakes and tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes. Serve it while it’s hot!

Tammy Quackenbush lives in San Francisco.  Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do back in 1996-1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking two years ago (had to put her college degree to use somehow).  Her recipes (mostly in video form) have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats.com, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.com.