Hot and spicy rice cake

Tteokbokki 떡볶이

When I lived in Korea I learned the secret to making good tteokbokki from a famous place in a market. It was run by an old lady who could always be found stirring her tteokbokki. People were lined up to buy it.

I saw she used dried anchovies in her stock, and that ingredient made a huge difference in the flavor.

I once ran out of dried anchovies and made tteokbokki without it. It didn’t taste at all like what I was expecting. So don’t forget to always make a good stock with dried anchovies when you make this!

Ingredients

1 pound of cylinder shaped rice cake, bought or homemade. (Use a little more if you’re not adding hard boiled eggs and fish cakes)
4 cups of water
7 large size dried anchovies, with heads and intestines removed
6 x 8 inch dried kelp
⅓ cup hot pepper paste
1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sugar
3 green onions, cut into 3 inch long pieces
2 hard boiled eggs, shelled (optional)
½ pound fish cakes (optional)

Directions

Add the water, dried anchovies, and dried kelp to a shallow pot or pan.
Boil for 15 minutes over medium high heat without the lid.
Combine hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, and sugar in a small bowl. Remove the anchovies and kelp from the pot and add the rice cake, the mixture in the bowl, the green onion, and the optional fish cakes and hard boiled eggs. The stock will be about 2 ½ cups.
Stir gently with a wooden spoon when it starts to boil. Keep stirring until the rice cake turns soft and the sauce thickens and looks shiny, which should take about 10 -15 minutes. If the rice cake is not soft enough, add more water and continue stirring until soften. When you use freshly made rice cake, it takes shorter time. If you use frozen rice cake, thaw it out and soak in cold water to soften it before cooking.
Remove from the heat and serve hot.

Posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 8:56 pm. Last updated on August 7, 2017.
Tagged: cylinder shaped rice cake, ddeokbokki recipe, ddukbokki, 떡볶이 조리법, korean food, Korean recipes, korean snack, Korean spicy rice cake, Korean street snack, Maangchi recipes, spicy ricecake, tteokbokki, tteokbokki recipe

790 Comments:

Kay18 Kuwait joined 7/18 & has 2 comments
Posted July 8th, 2018 at 9:56 am | Log in to reply.

Eating this now for lunch, thank you maangchi, spicy!

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted July 11th, 2018 at 8:59 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Oh, five eggs! So you share this with 5 people? It’s a spicy food party!
Nydragonfly Delaware joined 6/18 & has 2 comments
Posted June 12th, 2018 at 3:54 pm | Log in to reply.

Maanchi, This is so very tasty. My rice cake did not turn out but this sauce — I can not get enough! on everything! So delicious! Thank you for your time and dedication!
Ichi Indonesia joined 3/18 & has 1 comment
Posted March 12th, 2018 at 12:43 am | Log in to reply.

Hi! Thank you for the recipe. I made this yesterday ^^ simple but delicious

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted March 15th, 2018 at 9:02 am | Log in to reply.
  
  It looks amazing and delicious!
CaitlinSproul Columbus, Georgia joined 2/18 & has 2 comments
Posted February 22nd, 2018 at 10:17 am | Log in to reply.

Here it is!

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted February 24th, 2018 at 11:03 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Wow, mouthwatering!
CaitlinSproul Columbus, Georgia joined 2/18 & has 2 comments
Posted February 21st, 2018 at 12:00 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi!

I have followed your recipes going on 5 years now but just now decided to make an account! My husband is korean and I’m Laos. He is always requesting korean dishes and I’m always seeking to continuously impress my mother in law. Your dishes are so awesome and your videos have taught me so much! I made this tonight for the first time at my husband request and used your from scratch rice cake recipe as well. I hit it out the park! This is so yummy! And so easy to make! I usually don’t nail it on my first try and I was impressed with myself. I saved some to bring to my mother in laws house tomorrow along with your seasoned cuttlefish, gimbap, and seasoned dried anchovies. Thank you so much for all you have taught me and continue to teach me. If you are ever in the Columbus, Georgia or Atlanta area I would love to meet you!

Happy cooking,
Catie

:)
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted February 24th, 2018 at 10:59 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Hi Catie!
  I’m so happy to hear that your Korean cooking seems to go well!
  Your in-laws and your Korean husband will love you because you’re learning Korean cooking and culture!
JunellaCabus Dubai joined 1/18 & has 1 comment
Posted February 13th, 2018 at 4:41 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi. You are my inspiration when it comes to cooking Korean dishes. i just want to ask you can i just use any dried anchovies or there is any particular brand that you can suggest? More power :)
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted February 17th, 2018 at 1:43 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  The anchovies should be large sized (at least 3 inches long). Tiny anchovies don’t have enough flavor. There is no particular brand to get, just make sure they are the right size!
alessiastre Italy joined 2/18 & has 2 comments
Posted February 8th, 2018 at 8:11 am | Log in to reply.

Hello Maangchi, today I made this dish, I added shrimp and toasted sesame, the end of the world ..
I have followed many of your recipes, I have already done yesterday, today I did Garaeddeok (a bit ‘too dry, next time I’ll do better), I’m preparing Chapssalttok, only the stuffing I like so much.
I’m happy, they have subtitles that very well and helped me a lot.
Thank you

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KoreanFooodlover Philippines joined 7/17 & has 5 comments
Posted February 7th, 2018 at 8:35 pm | Log in to reply.

hi maangchi, just wanna thank you for this recipe, i used it for business and many loves it, but can i have a favor i really wanted to eat RABOKKI as i seen on Korean Dramas. can you make a video of it? i watch many videos of rabokki on how to cook it but i really wanted if its you hehe .thankyou i hope you will reply
yoda Germany joined 2/18 & has 1 comment
Posted February 4th, 2018 at 5:26 pm | Log in to reply.

I once ate this dish in a Korean restaurant when I was in London and I couldn’t get it out of my mind ever since!
I followed your instructions without the eggs and fish cake and I have to say the taste is just as I remember it! Thank you for the recipe! ♡

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted February 17th, 2018 at 1:36 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  I’m glad you enjoyed your tteokbokki, it looks delicious!
Sugarprincess Sinsheim-Hoffenheim, Germany joined 7/17 & has 3 comments
Posted February 2nd, 2018 at 4:47 am | Log in to reply.

Dear Maangchi-ssi!
Over months I’ve been watching your wonderfully inspiring videos now…
And not only have I been cooking corean food for my family (six children and my husband and also for my mother and her husband) – all recipes coming from your blog – but I’ve also made german videos presenting your corean recipes on my Youtube Channel Sugarprincess and posted the recipes in german on my blog to introduce your wonderful recipes to my readers. So now I wanted to say thank you again and let you know…
One of my favourite dishes is your Tteokbokki – and you can see that I have followed your recipe in almost all steps…
If you visit Heidelberg some day… be very welcome to my house and we’ll cook and eat together!
Many, many greetings from far away Germany!
Yours, Yushka
Sugarprincess.de – Blog and Youtube

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted February 17th, 2018 at 1:39 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  Oh, that’s great! Good luck with your YouTube channel!
tjanat Australia joined 1/18 & has 1 comment
Posted January 5th, 2018 at 8:49 am | Log in to reply.

Hey Maangchi. Thank you for encouraging my love of Korean food. My local Korean grocer was initially surprised when I would turn up with my kids looking for ingredients to your recipes. Now she spoils my kids when we show up. I’m making your tteokbokki recipe tonight, and my Egyptian husband can’t wait to take it to work tomorrow to show his Korean coworkers. They all sit together and talk about how good Korean food is. Thanks again for all your amazing recipes.
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,339 comments
  Posted February 17th, 2018 at 1:40 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  I hope that your Korean cooking is still going well!

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Hot and spicy rice cake
Korean name: 떡볶이
Romanized: Tteokbokki
Also Romanized as: ddukbokkie, topokki, ddeokbokki, dduk bok ki, dduk bok kie, dduk bok kie, dduk bok kee, dduk bok ki, ddukbokki

Categories: rice cake, snack, spicy
Made with: dried anchovies, dried kelp, eggs, fish cakes, green onion, hot pepper flakes, hot pepper paste, rice cake, sugar, water,