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

881 Comments:

freshmints PH joined 2/21 & has 1 comment
Posted February 8th, 2021 at 4:48 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it last night for my family and they loved it.

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LiliSangEoTurututuru London joined 1/21 & has 1 comment
Posted January 7th, 2021 at 11:42 am | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi! I cooked tteokbokki for lunch following the recipe from your book and adding some noodles; it was delicious!!!! As it was a little bit too spicy for me (I am Spanish and our food is not spicy at all), I have reduced the amount of gochujang a little bit, and it has worked very well for me. Thank you for sharing this nice recipe with us <3<3<3

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- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 116 comments
  Posted January 8th, 2021 at 7:26 am | Log in to reply.
  
  It looks so good!
Elbent Cleveland, OH joined 12/20 & has 1 comment
Posted December 31st, 2020 at 5:46 pm | Log in to reply.

Hi Maangchi! I was not able to find dried kelp at my Asian market, but I did get some fresh kelp. Will this work for the stock? Thank you!
- Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 116 comments
  Posted January 1st, 2021 at 7:31 am | Log in to reply.
  
  Fresh kelp won’t work for making stock.
  - AisyaHermosa Malaysia joined 2/21 & has 3 comments
    Posted February 19th, 2021 at 9:47 am | Log in to reply.
    
    My hubby favourite!! He’s really love to eat 떡볶이. He’ll order 떡볶이 everytime we go to Korean restaurant. Now i just make it at home using your recipe. I put lots of 오뎅 because i love the taste. Like usual I’ll put some 고추가루 because i love spicy
    
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    - Maangchi New York City joined 8/08 & has 116 comments
      Posted February 20th, 2021 at 12:42 pm | Log in to reply.
      
      It’s awesome because you can make you and your husband’s favorite food tteokbokki! Congratulations!
      - AisyaHermosa Malaysia joined 2/21 & has 3 comments
        Posted February 21st, 2021 at 2:59 pm |
        
        Thanks Maangchi! ☺️ My niece also love to eat this because 떡 texture so chewy & 오뎅 so much. Do you have 오뎅 (flat square look) recipe so hard to fine Halal 오뎅 in malaysia
Jang-geum Charlotte, NC joined 9/20 & has 9 comments
Posted December 5th, 2020 at 3:56 pm | Log in to reply.

Made Tteokbokki ! Ate as morning breakfast. Yummy!

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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,