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 May 4, 2019.
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

841 Comments:

bibimbebe Poland joined 5/19 & has 2 comments
Posted October 8th, 2019 at 3:01 pm | Log in to reply.

Hello!
Greetings from Poland! Me and my boyfriend are vegans who live togehter and since we moved in we eat a lot of korean food inspired by your recipes! Thank you for helping us to learn about korean cuisine! Love all recipes, they are very easy to make vegan (we use lots of kombu stock and seitan-based meat substitutes, but besides that we have a very well equipped korean grocery store in our town)
Love

Karolina and Hubert

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- feartech UK joined 10/19 & has 1 comment
  Posted October 13th, 2019 at 8:08 am | Log in to reply.
  
  You guys are awesome! I’m a quarter Polish (my last name ends in -ski) and it kinda kills me that so much traditional Polish food is difficult to make vegan-friendly :( Awesome to see you guys trying to be vegan nonetheless! I’m about to try this recipe of Maangchi’s making a broth with vegan fishy sauce, kombu, soy sauce, and dulse flakes. Hopefully it turns out!
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,724 comments
  Posted October 15th, 2019 at 8:57 am | Log in to reply.
  
  “We use lots of kombu stock and seitan-based meat substitutes”
  Thank you for sharing the tip for veganizing my recipes. I’m sure it will help my vegan readers. By the way I will post a video recipe for vegetable stock soon. Your spicy rice cake, soybean sprouts, and kimchi look great!
Applesugarcookin New zealand joined 10/19 & has 2 comments
Posted October 6th, 2019 at 1:23 am | Log in to reply.

Hi, I tried this recipe for the first time today and some how managed to screw it up very badly with the taste, I added a bit of salt and lemon pepper and that fixed it super quickly,
This dish is so foolproof, and if you do manage to mess up like me it’s super easy to fix!
Thank you so much for your great recipes Maangchi!
freaktiful Spain joined 9/19 & has 1 comment
Posted September 1st, 2019 at 10:58 am | Log in to reply.

I just got all the ingredients for this dish and I’m super excited to make it and taste it! :D
Dafiloola Oklahoma joined 7/19 & has 1 comment
Posted July 23rd, 2019 at 6:50 pm | Log in to reply.

We just made this today and it was awesome! Didn’t have anchovies so I used Hondashi powder. I used half the amount of pepper flakes and paste since I’m not used to spice anymore and it was perfect! The rice cakes have such a nice chew and the sauce was sooooo yummy! You could cook anything in this sauce and it would be amazing.
LaDameBlanche43 Central Florida joined 7/19 & has 1 comment
Posted July 22nd, 2019 at 7:08 am | Log in to reply.

I found you and this recipe about three years ago and I can’t even explain how much we LOVE Ttbeokbokki and your recipe! My daughter and I make this at least twice a month! We are very fortunate that there is a Lotte Market in Orlando to do all of our Korean shopping at!
Thank you Maangchi!

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,724 comments
  Posted July 22nd, 2019 at 11:12 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Tteokbokki with rice! I’ve never thought about the idea, but it looks great!
kmey0719 joined 11/15 & has 2 comments
Posted May 13th, 2019 at 4:41 pm | Log in to reply.

Do you add frozen rice cakes straight into the pot or do you have to thaw it out first?
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,724 comments
  Posted May 14th, 2019 at 5:23 am | Log in to reply.
  
  I thaw it out first in the fridge and soak it in cold water for about 20 to 30 minutes before using.
evarevareve Australia joined 5/19 & has 2 comments
Posted May 9th, 2019 at 6:21 am | Log in to reply.

It came out with such a perfect flavour! It’s almost too easy for how delicious it is, haha. Thank you maangchi!

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,724 comments
  Posted May 14th, 2019 at 5:13 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Congratulations! It looks very tasty!
abcameo Roseville, CA joined 2/19 & has 1 comment
Posted March 16th, 2019 at 2:06 pm | Log in to reply.

I’m going to try this today. I own your three recipes books (in one volume for my Kindle), but I couldn’t find this recipe in there. Did I miss it? I am subscribed and watch your YouTube videos all the time and totally enjoy watching you–so fun! My favorite is Korean pancakes; I’m an expert in them now. :-) Many thanks.
Mksnodgrass Mechanicsville, VA, USA joined 3/19 & has 1 comment
Posted March 5th, 2019 at 12:59 pm | Log in to reply.

Maangchi, I am so happy about this recipe. I made my way across town to get the ingredients and did half the recipe. This is a thousand times better than the one I get at Bonchon. (Sorry Bonchon!) I put some cheese on top and I think I will have to half the half recipe I made because it was ALOT! But so delicious, thank you!

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Lightact28 Indonesia joined 3/19 & has 1 comment
Posted March 4th, 2019 at 7:43 pm | Log in to reply.

Is there substitute for gochujang? There’s no korean grocery store in my town and would need to wait for another months if I want to make it
Rima R France joined 1/19 & has 1 comment
Posted January 29th, 2019 at 8:25 am | Log in to reply.

Merci Maangchi, j’adooooore. I don’t eat Gluten and this recipe is so delicious and perfect!
Many kisses from France

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 11,724 comments
  Posted February 27th, 2019 at 8:51 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Oh my, chewy rice cakes cooked in a spicy and savory broth! They look wonderful!
- Annavan France joined 3/19 & has 1 comment
  Posted March 24th, 2019 at 1:46 pm | Log in to reply.
  
  Hello, I’m also from France but I can’t seem to find dried anchovies. Can you tell where you found them?

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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,