How to Make 떡 (Tteok/Korean Rice Cake)

On New Year’s Eve my friends and I wanted to try something new for the new year. I heard about Korean BBQ from a friend, and saw there was a Korean BBQ restaurant in Minneapolis. We tried it out and it was absolutely amazing! One of my favorite foods we ate their was Tteok, Korean rice cake. I decided to learn how to make, and now I am going to share this food with you.

Origin

Tteok is with a “t” or “d” sound and then “ukk” at the end. Tteok may sound like duck but it is the opposite to that. It is a gelatinous rice cake originating from Korea. It only takes glutinous rice flour, water, and steam to make tteok.

Recipes Tteok Is Used In

Tteok can be used in many recipes. The most popular dish tteok is in is tteokbokki. Tteokbokki is spicy Korean rice cakes. You take the tteok, a spicy sauce, vegetables, a hard boiled egg, fish cakes, and mix it together. Tteok is also used for texture in recipes. I personally like to put it in ramen and bulgogi (strips of marinated beef).

How To Make Tteok

This is recipe is a kind of rice cake called garaetteok and by Maangchi.

Ingredients

• Glutinous Rice Flour (2 cups)
• Salt (1/2 teaspoon)
• ¾ of boiling water if using microwave (1 cup if using a steamer)
• Sesame Oil (1 teaspoon)

Instructions

This recipe is for if you’re using a microwave. If you don’t want to use a microwave there is a recipe on Maangchi’s website which is in the works cited.

1. Mix rice flour, salt, and boiling water together in a bowl until fully incorporated.
2. Cover the bowl with clear plastic wrap but leave a gap for the steam to escape.
3. Microwave the dough for 2 minutes then mix and microwave for 2 more minutes.
4. Now put a ½ teaspoon of sesame oil on a cutting board. Put the dough on the cutting board and pound with a pestle for about 5 minutes until smooth and stretchy.
5. Cut the rice cake in what when portion size you like (stick, nobs, etc.)
6. Finally take a ½ teaspoon of sesame oil and rub a thin layer on the rice cake to give some flavor and to keep them from sticking together.

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In times like today we can become bored very easily. It is always good to learn something new. I hope you enjoyed this adventure of learning how to make tteok.

Works Cited

Maangchi. “Garaetteok (Cylinder-Shaped Rice Cakes for Tteokguk or Tteokbokki).” Maangchi, 17 Jan. 2013, http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/garaetteok.

Author: August Galeazzi

Editor: Spencer Marlier