Main · Simmered

Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes)

Name: Tteokbokki recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 2–3 servings
Ingredients: 400 g cylindrical rice cakes (garaetteok), fresh or frozen; 2½ cups (600 ml) anchovy-kelp stock, or water with a stock cube; 3 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chilli paste); 1–2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes), to taste; 1 tablespoon soy sauce; 1–2 tablespoons sugar; 2 sheets fish cake (eomuk), cut into triangles; 2 boiled eggs, peeled; 2 spring onions, cut into lengths

Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes) — street food from South Korea

Photo: lee seunghyub / Unsplash · Unsplash License

Seoul's Sindang-dong still has a whole 'tteokbokki town' of restaurants grown up around Ma Bok-rim's original stall.

Cylindrical rice cakes simmered in a sweet-spicy gochujang sauce, often with fish cakes and boiled egg, sold from red tented street carts called pojangmacha.

Why it's made this way: The original tteokbokki was a soy-sauce stir-fry served at the Joseon royal court; the red gochujang street version is credited to Ma Bok-rim, who began selling it in Seoul's Sindang-dong in 1953.

What is Tteokbokki?

Tteokbokki is a Korean street food of chewy cylindrical rice cakes (tteok) simmered in a sweet, spicy red sauce made with gochujang, a fermented chilli paste. It is usually cooked with fish cakes and boiled eggs and sold from the tarp-covered carts called pojangmacha.

Older versions were a soy-sauce stir-fry eaten at the royal court. The red gochujang street version is a 20th-century invention, usually dated to the 1950s, and is the one most people mean today.

How to make tteokbokki

Serves 2–3 · prep 10 min · cook 20 min

Ingredients

400 g cylindrical rice cakes (garaetteok), fresh or frozen
2½ cups (600 ml) anchovy-kelp stock, or water with a stock cube
3 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
1–2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes), to taste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1–2 tablespoons sugar
2 sheets fish cake (eomuk), cut into triangles
2 boiled eggs, peeled
2 spring onions, cut into lengths

Method

If the rice cakes are frozen or hard, soak them in cold water for 20–30 minutes, then drain. Fresh, soft ones can go straight in.
In a wide pan, stir the stock with the gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce and sugar until the paste dissolves. Bring to a boil.
Add the rice cakes and fish cakes. Simmer over medium heat for 10–15 minutes, stirring often so the rice cakes do not stick to the pan.
When the rice cakes are soft and chewy and the sauce has thickened to a glossy coating, add the eggs and spring onions and cook for 2 minutes more.
Taste and add a little more sugar for sweetness or chilli flakes for heat. Serve hot, straight from the pan.

Tips

Stir often. The starch from the rice cakes thickens the sauce and also makes it stick to the base.
A little sugar balances the chilli paste; do not skip it.
Add water or stock if the sauce reduces too fast before the rice cakes are soft.
Eat it fresh. The rice cakes harden as they cool.