Fancy Korean Rice Cake

So here’s my excuse for not posting lately…I have been taking Food Stylist classes in Korea since January. In the recent weeks, we have had 3 photo sessions where we prepare the food and table setting and a professional photographer takes food photos for us. It is total chaos until everything from table linen to forks are all set to look good on camera. We also get help from our professor on some tips on styling.

It has been a really fun and interesting class overall, we learned all the different food styling areas: package styling, tv/video ads and print/magazine ads. Each area has its own difficulties and quirks but personally my favorite is the print/magazine ads as it has more to do with how a photo feels and the stylist has more freedom on how the shot is designed.

We also learned tips and tricks on how to make foods look yummy on screen. How to show “sizzle” by adding additional ingredients to foods. It’s not particularly my favorite thing to do but interesting nonetheless. One of the most interesting story I heard was from a tv ad stylist-it was when she had to style 200+ glasses of beer for a TV ad.  They could have easily used computer graphics but the producer wanted the real scene. She told us that by the time she was done pouring the 200 glasses, the foam from the beer was already all gone! So their solution was to use hair mousse mixed with beer for the foam!!!

One of my goal in taking the food stylist class was to learn how to style Korean foods. So the photo you see on top is my attempt to style Korean rice cakes (yes, aren’t they so pretty? It’s the latest trend and has no traditional name – these are quite expensive and often used as gifts to relatives as part of Korean wedding tradition) in a more modern way. The photo below shows Korean songpyeon dduk (송편떡) – the little oval shaped colorful rice cakes – which is traditionally made during the Korean fall harvest (chooseok) time. The square shaped pink rice cake is called Seolghee/Seolki/Seolki/Seolgi Dduk (설기떡). This photo is styled with more traditional colors and feel.

eongpyeon and Seolki Dduk

Anyway, this week we have our final class + exhibition of our class member’s photos so I should be able to come back to blogging very soon!

black sesame jook (6 C water)

Winter is pretty cold in Korea and this winter especially was freezing cold.  The lowest temperature in Seoul got as low as 3°F ! Yikes!! So hot belly warming foods like soups and porridge are very popular this time of year. Korean food has many different kinds of porridge (죽 jook). They are made with abalones (my personal favorite), pumpkin, red bean, mung bean, pine nuts, spinach, beef, chicken, oysters..and the list goes on. Koreans love jook. They eat jook for breakfast, as appetizers and almost always when they are sick. They are now many chain restaurants that serve only jook and they are very popular.

According to history, jook was part of Korean food even before plain rice became the main staple. Just as our ancestors started farming they started to make jook out of different grains, nuts, vegetables and hunted meats. Probably because jook is quite easy to make and was a great way to feed many hungry families with small amount of food. I mean, if you look at the recipe, jook is almost 90% water.  Also because jook is easier to digest and usually made with nutritious ingredients, they are great for babies and for sick people.

Making jook is not difficult at all but it is not by any means a quick food. You need time for it to cook fully. But once you make a batch, you can store and eat it for days so it can be worth the time.

Here are also some nutritional facts about sesame seeds : “Sesame seeds are a very good source of copper and a good source of magnesium and calcium. Just a quarter-cup of sesame seeds supplies 74.0% of the daily value for copper, 31.6% of the DV for magnesium, and 35.1% of the DV for calcium. And black sesame seeds are known to have even higher fiber and calcium content than regular sesame seeds.  They are also a good source of iron, phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber.” (whfoods) Koreans often eat black sesame seeds jook after surgery to regain their strength and to also to help with constipation.

Cooking Time : 1 hr (for soaking) + 20 min                   Difficulty: Medium                                  Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1/2 C Roasted black sesame seeds (you can also use regular sesame seeds although black sesame seeds are more nutritious)
• 1 C Short Grain Rice
• 5~6 C Water (water will be divided and used at different stages)
• 1 tsp Salt
• Sugar or Honey (optional)
• Dried jujubes/pine nuts/almond (as garnish)
  

  rice and black sesame for jook

1. Measure 1 C of rice and let it soak in water for 1 hour or more and drain.
2. Measure 1/2 C of black sesame seeds. Rinse and drain.
3. When the rice is fully soaked, finely grind the rice with 1 C (out of 5) of water. It should come out looking something like this:
   

   blended rice

   Depending on the power of your blender, it may not come out fully smooth right away. Try straining it to see if there are any bigger bits. You can grind the bigger pieces a second time with some additional water if you want your jook to be totally smooth. Some people prefer to have their jook with bits that they can chew on. However you like it. Set aside.

4. Finely blend the black sesame seeds with 2 C of water. Instead of adding all of the water at once, start blending with less water (more like 1/2 to 1 C) and gradually add more. Unless you have a blender as powerful as vitamix, your blender will not be able to finely grind it if you add the full 2 C of water from the start.
   

   black sesame ground

5. Mix the blended rice and black sesame seeds in a pot. (NOTE: because I blended my rice and sesame mixture really finely, I just cooked everything together directly in the pot. If your blended mixture is coarse, you may want to separate the solid rice and sesame bits and theire liquid by straining. Mix and cook the two liquids first (just for 2 min) and then add the solid rice and sesame bits later. )
6. Turn on the heat to medium high and keep stirring until it starts to boil. Stir in remaining 2~3 C of water as it cooks. Cook at low heat for 10-15 min. Make sure you continue to stir (I used a whisk) to prevent any rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
   

   black sesame jook starting to boil

7. When the jook is fully cooked (with 2 C of water added in step 6), it should be quite thick (consistency of thick batter) as shown here:
   

   fully cooked black sesame jook

   If you like yours to be a little more thin, add more water (up to 1 C) and it will come out looking more smooth like the first photo on top.

8. Season with salt (1 tsp) to taste. Do NOT add salt early on while it’s cooking but only AFTER it’s fully cooked. Salt can dissolve the rice and make the jook watery. Believe me, I’m not talking about the jook just turning thin, adding too much salt or adding it too early will basically ruin the porridge. A good way is to not season before serving but allow each person to season it themselves right before they eat.
9. Optionally you can add sugar or honey to the jook or serve it on the side with the jook (which I recommend).

Right consistency of porridge – Use 5 or 6 C of water?

The consistency is very much a personal preference. Adding only 5 C of water will produce a jook that’s thicker, closer to a pudding. The picture below shows the black sesame jook when only 5 C of water is added:

thick black sesame jook (5 C water)

Variations

• Add other nuts such as pine nuts or walnuts to add more nutty flavor.
• You can use regular sesame seeds instead.
• Use sweet rice powder instead of plain rice. 1 C of sweet rice powder and 5 C of water will work.

Stay warm!

Bibimbap (all mixed)

“Bibimbap”… If you have ever taken a Korean flight or been to a Korean restaurant then you have probably tasted (or at least  have seen) this dish before. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this dish. I love some versions of it but actually not all. For that reason, I usually don’t order at restaurants unless they specialize in it. If special attention is not given to each individual topping in terms of freshness, quality and seasoning, the final medley can easily taste just so-so. And if you are like me, one simply cannot waste a precious meal on something that tastes just so-so! For me, every meal is an opportunity for something amazing, something exciting and something that will just lift up my spirits.

As a kid, bibimbap was not in my top favorite list because I was just not a big vegetable lover. The other reason was because I often had trouble eating some of the long wild greens such as the fiddleheads (which is quite fibrous and chewy). So it was only in my adult life, I rediscovered bibimbap and started to enjoy it.

But making a proper, traditional bibimbap is quite a bit of work and time.  Fortunately, there are some simplified, quick versions that taste just as good and I will be writing about that soon.

Bibimbap is also a very popular pot luck food for many Koreans in the US. It’s because if each guest can make and bring 1 to 2 toppings, you can make a beautiful bibimbap together quite easily. It also does not have to be served hot which makes serving very easy and is perfect food for buffets. Guests can pick and choose what they want in their bibimbap so it can easily be both a vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. And it’s also gluten-free!

There is really no fixed set of ingredients for bibimbap as “bibim” means “to mix or rub” and “bap” means rice. The toppings usually represent the unique produce of each province in Korea and so the bibimbap will be different based on the area you are in. The typical bibimbap you get in Seoul usually includes 3-4 different edible wild greens (나물 Namul), some common vegetables such as carrots, spinach, bean sprouts, radish and then some meat (beef, chicken) or seafood (squid, shrimp).

PRINT RECIPE

Prep Time:   6 hrs           Cooking Time: 1 hr 15 min       Servings: 2             Difficulty: Medium

6 kinds of namul for bibimbap

Above is a picture of the 6 different kinds of vegetable toppings(namul) – listed below from left to right:

1. Sauteed bell flower roots (도라지나물 Doraji Namul)
2. Blanched Spinach (시금치나물  Shikeumchi Namul)
3. Sauteed bracken fiddleheads (고사리 나물 Gosari/Kosari Namul)
4. Radish Salad (무생채 Moosaengche)
5. Sauteed carrots (홍당무 Hongdaangmoo)
6. Cooked Soybean Sprouts (콩나물 kongnamul)

In addition, I cooked some seasoned ground beef and a pan fried-egg for the final topping.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 C short grain rice
• For the Seasoned Ground Beef
  • 1/3 lb ground beef
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp rice cooking wine
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/8 tsp garlic powder (optional)
  • 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
• For the Bellflower Roots (Doraji Namul)
  • 4 oz (about 2 1/2 C) reconstituted bellflower roots (도라지 doraji)
  • 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 1/4 tsp chopped green onions
  • 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• For the Blanched Spinach
  • 1 bunch spinach, washed
  • 6 C water
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
• For the Bracken Fiddleheads (Gosari Namul)
  • 4 oz or 2 C reconstituted bracken fiddleheads
  • 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  • 3/4 tsp gook kanjang
  • 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 1/4 tsp chopped green onions
  • 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• For the Radish Salad (Moosaengche 무생채)
  • 3 C julienned Korean radish (무 moo)
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 3 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 3 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
  • 2 2/1 tsp T Korean red pepper powder(고추가루 gochugaroo)
• For the Sauteed Carrots
  • 1 large carrot or 2 small carrots julienned (about 1 C)
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 T vegetable oil
• For the Soybean Sprouts
  • 3 C soybean sprouts
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1/3 C water
• For the egg
  • 1 egg, pan fried, over easy/medium/scrambled
• For the condiments
  • 2 tsp or more gochujang (adjust to taste)
  • 1-2 tsp sesame oil

Seasoned Ground Beef

- Prepare the ground beef by mixing in all the seasonings and then sauteeing the beef on medium heat until fully cooked. Set aside.

Sauteed Bellflower Roots (Doraji)

stir fried bell flower roots (도라지 나물 doraji namul)

1. Doraji is usually sold dried. If your store sells the reconstituted ones buy it! If not, soak the dried roots in water overnight and drain. Rub the roots with sea salt to extract some of the bitterness.

2. Split and cut doraji roots into approx 2 in long and 1/8 in thick pieces. Here’s how you can split a whole root (left) and then split each into even thinner pieces (right) – by inserting a small knife upside down (with the blade side up) and then pushing it upwards. Be careful though – make sure you point the knife AWAY from you or anyone you like.. Wash and rinse the cut doraji roots and drain.

insert knife w/ blade side up and split bellflower roots by pulling up

split bellflower root(doraji)

3. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Saute doraji and chopped garlic. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt. Saute for 3-4 minutes until the doraji pieces are tender yet still a bit crunchy. Turn off the heat, sprinkle green onions and sesame oil. Set aside.

You can eat doraji raw so don’t worry about not cooking it enough. It’s all about having the right texture (should be slightly chewy and crunchy) and the right amount of seasoning. Adjust salt to taste – keep it on the lighter side because additional seasoning will be added to the final dish.

NOTE – when you taste doraji while it’s hot/warm, it will taste quite bitter. Don’t worry..the bitter taste will mostly go away once it cools. But remember that it is supposed to taste still slightly bitter as it belongs to the ginseng family.

Blanched Spinach (시금치 나물 Shikeumchi Namul)

1. Boil a pot of salted water (6 C or so + 1 tsp salt) and quickly blanch the spinach. Do not cook the spinach more than 1 minute. Spinach should be still a bit chewy and not mushy. Shock the cooked spinach in cold or ice water to stop the cooking process.
2. Drain the water and squeeze out any excess water from the spinach by squeezing them gently in your hand.
3. Season the blanched spinach with some salt (1 tsp) and sesame oil (1 tsp). Set aside.

Sauteed Bracken Fiddleheads (고사리 나물 Gosari/Kosari Namul)

Reconstituted Bracken Fiddleheads (Gosari)

If using dried Gosari -

• Boil it for 20 – 30 minutes until they are soft then drain. Soak in cold water for 6-8 hours to draw out any bitterness.

1. Trim the reconstituted Gosari by going through each piece and cutting off any hard stems.
2. Cut them into bite size pieces (2 in long)
3. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Saute Gosari and chopped garlic. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp salt and gook kanjang.  Saute for 5 minutes on low heat. Turn off the heat, sprinkle green onions and sesame oil. Set aside.

Radish Salad (무생채 나물 Moo Saeng Che Namul)

See my previous post for Korean Radish Salad for detailed instructions. You only need a little bit for bibimbap so I reduced the ingredients by half for this recipe.

Sauteed Carrots (홍당무 Hongdangmoo)

Add 1 T oil in frying pan on medium heat. Add julienned carrots and a pinch of salt. Saute carrots until they are soft and tender.

Cooked Soybean Sprouts (콩나물 Kongnamul)

cooked soybean sprouts (kongnamul) in pot

1. Wash and clean the soybean sprouts. Optionally break off the root ends if they are brown.
2. In a small pot, add water, soybean sprouts, salt and garlic. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 8 minutes or so until most of the water has evaporated. Remember the sprouts may taste fishy if you open the lid during cooking. It’s good if you can use a clear glass lidded pot so you can see it without opening the lid.
3. Turn off heat and sprinkle the sesame oil. Set aside.

Pan Fried Egg

Usually the egg is fried over easy so the egg yolk is still runny. If you don’t like it that way, you can certainly cook the egg all the way or even scramble it. Fully cooking the egg will not give you the rich yolk taste but it can also make the bibimbap taste lighter and drier which some people may prefer.

Now, let assemble the bibimbap -

1. Put rice at the bottom of a bowl
   

   Rice in bowl

2. Top the rice with all the vegetables and the ground beef in the middle. Don’t you just love the colors?
   

   bibimbap with toppings

3. Add the fried egg on the very top and serve with gochujang and sesame oil so each person can season to their taste. Mix it all up and there you go!
   

   how to serve bibimbap

   How to eat - 

   One final note on how to eat bibimbap. Many Koreans add a lot of gochujang and make it really red and spicy. I personally don’t like it that way because you can’t really fully taste all the different ingredients. So start by adding a little bit of gochujang (1 tsp) and then increase gradually.

   What to serve -

   Serve with some clear soup like bugeo gook or miyeok gook. Also some fresh side dish like kimchi is a must.

   Variations -

   Any of the toppings above can be substituted and you can have more or less toppings. It all works.

   • meat/fish toppings other than ground beef – beef bulgogi/kalbi/chicken bulgogi/pork bulgogi/squid/shrimp
   • wild greens (namul)- any other wild greens such as aster scaber (취나물 chinamul), shitake mushrooms, perilla leaves,
   • common vegetables (sauteed) – sauteed zucchini, bean sprouts (instead of soybean sprouts), stir-fried cucumbers, sauteed onions, sauteed burdock,
   • fresh greens – fresh lettuces (romaine/green leaf/iceberg), fresh perilla leaves, fresh crown daisies

   You can also sprinkle some roasted sea laver pieces as a final garnish.

   BON APETIT!

Total Ingredients (this includes everything)

• 2 servings of cooked rice (1 C uncooked rice)
• 1/3 lb ground beef
• 4 oz bellflower roots
• 4 oz bracken fiddleheads
• 3 C soybean sprouts
• 1 bunch spinach
• 1 large or 2 small carrots
• 1/2 large radish (approx 3 C julienned)
• 1 T + 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 4 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp cooking rice wine
• 3 tsp sesame oil + 2 tsp for finishing
• 3 tsp minced garlic
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 3 T + 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp chopped green onions
• 3/4 tsp gook kanjang
• 2 1/2 tsp gochookaroo (Korean red chili powder)
• 1 T gochujang

Kongnamul Bap (콩나물밥 Soybean Sprouts with Rice)

If you have ever been to a Korean restaurant, you probably had a side dish made from these soybean sprouts (콩나물 Kongnamul). They are also great in soups and stews and Koreans swear that Kongnamul Gook(soup) will cure the common cold. Nutritionally, soybean sprouts contain tons of vitamin C and are also a good source of vitamin Bs, thiamine and folate. The head (the bean part) contains a lot of protein and the root part provides fiber.

Another way to eat these healthy and tasty sprouts is in a complete meal with rice (Kongnamul Bap). This is one of those dishes that was part of almost every Korean home when I was growing up. And I have to say.. as a kid, for me, it wasn’t as exciting to me as kalbi or pork belly.  Maybe I just took it for granted since we had it quite often..But, after I started living in the US, it became one of those dishes that I really started to miss. I guess you can say it is my Korean comfort food.

There were some concerns a few years ago in Korea about soybean sprouts that were grown using pesticides and other chemicals. The ones you buy in the US are probably fine but just in case, be suspicious if the white part below the bean is very chunky and looks especially long – like as if it was on steroids compared to other brands. If you can, buy ones that are organic or grown naturally which usually look thinner and smaller.

Prep time: 15 min.             Cooking time: 40 min.                       Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 3 cups* short grain rice *The cup here is a measuring cup that comes with rice cookers which is meant only to work with the water level measurements given inside the rice cooker.  Note that 1 rice measuring cup is actually equivalent to 3/4 C in standard volume measurements.
• 3 cups* of water
• 14 oz soybean sprouts
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 lb seasoned, cooked ground beef (or thinly sliced beef strips)
• seasoning for beef -
  • 2 tsp soy sauce (Kikkoman)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp rice cooking wine
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • 1/8 tsp garlic powder (optional)
  • 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
•  sauce for rice (양념장 yangnyum jang)
  • 3 T soy sauce
  • 2 T chopped green onions
  • 2 tsp ~ 1 T red chili powder (to taste)
  • 1 tsp chopped garlic
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • dash of black pepper
  • 1 T sesame oil
  • 1 T sesame seeds
  • 1 tsp chopped fresh green chili (optional)

1. Prepare the ground beef by mixing in all the seasonings and then stir frying the beef on medium heat until fully cooked.

soybean sprouts that i like to use

2. Wash and clean the soybean sprouts. It is customary to clean the sprouts by trimming the root ends of each sprout individually but I usually skip this step because it takes time and since it really doesn’t affect the taste at all. Just pick out any sprouts that are mushy or brownish looking and where the heads have turned black or have black spots on them. A bag of good quality  fresh bean sprouts should have very little sprouts that need to be picked out.

3. Wash the rice. Mix the water and salt and pour over the rice.

4. Spread the cleaned sprouts and the cooked ground beef on top of the rice.

kongnamul on top of uncooked rice

If you don’t have a rice cooker, you can also cook as you normally would cooking rice in a pot.  When cooking in a regular pot, it is probably best to put the sprouts and the beef first into the pot and add the rice on top (Read my variations below).  Don’t open the lid until the bean sprouts are fully cooked (or rice is fully cooked) otherwise the sprouts can come out smelly and tasting fishy. How do you know if they are fully cooked? When you cook rice in a pot, you bring it to a boil and then lower the heat to low and let it simmer for 15 minutes until all the liquid is gone (the sound will change from a bubbling sound to a low hissing sound) while keeping the lid on. Turn off the heat and let it sit for another 2 minutes or so before you open the lid.

5. While the rice is cooking you can make the yangnyum jang. Remember that this sauce is quite strong and salty, so little goes a long way. An option is to dilute it by adding water (1 T water).

yangnyumjang for kongnamul bap

5. When it is all cooked, mix the rice gently to evenly distribute the beef and sprouts throughout the rice. Now serve the rice with the sauce on the side so that people can adjust the amount to their taste. My husband always ends up adding too much sauce and makes his rice too salty!  Please start by adding about 1- 2 tsp to a bowl of rice and add more if you need it. Enjoy it with some kimchi on the side!

mixing the cooked rice

Variations

• Traditionally, kongnamul bap was made in a huge iron pot over a wood burning stove. And the sprouts were spread at the bottom of the pot first before the rice was added. There were two reasons for this: one is that there is no chance of the sprouts getting a fishy smell this way since it was buried under the rice; two is that the sprouts will lose less moisture. However,  in recent times with the use of the electric rice cooker, the moisture and the taste gets pretty much sealed as it cooks. And the sprouts tend to get a little burnt at the bottom which some people don’t like. But for me, I like having the sprouts on top because it leaves them more crunchy.
• There are recipes that add shitake or oyster mushrooms and julienned carrots. I don’t think it can hurt but it’s definitely not a traditional recipe. I personally don’t like adding random ingredients to recipes just for color or texture so please try this authentic recipe first before you go and add other stuff.
• Sometimes, the sprouts and the beef are cooked separately and served on top of the rice instead of cooking together. This produces a bibimbap kind of texture where the vegetables are still quite crunchy and the rice is also less mushy. Texture wise, I like this recipe but it does not have the full kongnamul flavor infused into the rice so it’s not as authentic tasting.
• You can use ground pork instead of beef or mix half and half.

Korean Spicy Rice Cake (Ddukbokki) with vegetables and fish cake

In Korea, you can find ddukbokki/tteokbokki in many different places and also served in many different ways. There are even restaurants that serve just different kinds of ddukbokki which are called 떡뽂이 집 (“ddukbokki jip” which means House of Ddukbokki). These places serve ddukbokki with different sauces and with different choices of noodles (쫄면 Jjol myun or 라면 ramen for example). Ddukbokki is also sold on street carts where often times you find the best tasting ones and for many Korean kids, it’s their most favorite after school snack on their way home. The recipe listed here is based on a 즉석떡뽁이 (jeuksuk (instant) ddukbokki ) version where restaurants serve it hot pot style, on top of a portable gas stove and cooked right at your table. I didn’t cook it at the table in the pictures you see here but I have definitely cooked it in an electric hot pot at home before and it’s great fun for the whole family.

Prep time: 5 min.           Cooking time: 20 min              Servings: 3-4

Ingredients

• 16 oz rice cake for ddukbokki
• 2 sheets of Korean rectangular fish cake (사각오뎅 Sahgahk Oden), cut into squares
• 2 C cabbage, cut into strips or 1 in squares
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 T chopped garlic or 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3 C water (or anchovy stock is even better)
• 2 T + 1 tsp (for extra spicy) gochujang (spicy red bean paste)
• 1 T sugar
• 1 T soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp salt
• dash of black pepper
• 1 tsp ketchup (optional)
• 1 tsp gook kanjang (Korean soy sauce for soups – optional)
• Other optional vegetables
• 1-2 green onions, cut into 2 in long pieces
• 2-3 perilla leaves, cut into thin strips

1. If the ddukbokki dduk is frozen, defrost in cold water while you prepare other ingredients. The type of rice cakes used for ddukbokki are shaped like little logs but you can also use the thin ovalettes used for Dduk Gook. They are all the same dduk but just cut differently.

2. Cut cabbage, carrots and onions and any other vegetables. Korean fish cake (어묵 Uhmook also called 오뎅(oden) which comes from Japanese) comes in various shapes but the ones normally used here is one that comes in thin rectanglular sheets (사각오뎅 Sahgahk Oden). They can be found in the freezer aisle in most Korean markets. I did not get to take a picture of the package but there usually isn’t a whole lot of difference among the different brands so buy whatever looks good to you.

Korean fish cake (어묵 Uhmook) for ddukbokki (aka 사각오뎅 Sahgahk Oden)

3. Get a saute pan deep enough to hold all the ingredients. Non stick is easier since the dduk tends to stick to the bottom of the pan. Add water or anchovy stock, carrots, cabbage and onions to the pan and bring to a boil.

carrots, cabbage, onion for ddukbokki

4. Add gochujang, garlic, soy sauce, salt and sugar to this mixture while you wait for it to boil.

boiling vegetables with gochujang for ddukbokki

5. Once it starts to boil, add dduk, fish cake and stir. Simmer for 20 min. stirring occasionally to make sure the dduk doesn’t burn at the bottom. Taste a piece of the dduk when it’s close to 20 min and adjust your seasonings. Don’t taste it in the beginning because the seasoning will not have fully penetrated into the dduk yet and it will taste very bland. Add ketchup to add that little extra something at the end. Sprinkle some black pepper.

ddukbokki with everything in and cooking away

ddukbokki/tteokbokki that's ready to serve

What other things can I add to ddukbokki?

• Ramen noodles – you can add ramen noodles directly into the ddukbokki while it is cooking. However, this is a bit risky for 2 reasons – the noodles soak up the liquid very quickly so you will have to keep adding extra water; it’s very easy to overcook the noodles which makes the whole dish into one giant blob of dduk… SO… I recommend that you boil the ramen noodles separately in water (make sure you cook it al dente) and then just mix it in quickly at the very end.
• Jjol Myun (쫄면) – this noodle is very stringy, chewy and adds great texture to the dish. Add this when you add the dduk and it should cook together nicely. You will need extra water for this too.
• Boiled eggs – make some hard boiled eggs and add it to the ddukbokki. The savory, spicy sauce goes very well with the egg.

Why doesn’t the ddukbokki taste like the ones I eat at restaurants or on the street?

• MSG… – if you really want to get that taste, you will have to add some MSG or some variation of that like dashida(다시다).
• ramen soup powder - another way to get a similar taste is to sprinkle some ramen soup powder (which has MSG) on your ddukbokki.

Any variations?

• My niece MJ recently told me about a variation where you roast the dduk in an iron skillet first before cooking it in the sauce. Adds additional crunchy texture and some smoky flavor which I’m sure will only make it better. In Korea, around New Year’s, when you have dduk coming out of your ears, one way to eat the freshly made dduk is to roast them over open fire and then eat them with some sugar sprinkled on top.

Ddukbokki (Korean Spicy Rice Cake)

This recipe is the simplest, easiest Korean spicy rice cake (Ddukbokki/Tteokbokki) ever and I used to make this for myself when I was in high school as my late night snack. I haven’t made this in a while but I realized this may be the perfect recipe for college students or young people out there who really don’t have the time or have all the ingredients to make a full version (will be posting that next).

Ingredients

• 1 C  rice cake(dduk/tteok) for ddukbokki/tteokbokki(떡뽂이)
• 2 tsp korean spicy bean paste (고추장 gochujang)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 3/4 C water
• sesame seeds (optional)

1. 1 C rice cake is about 5-6 oz. The quality of the dduk varies quite a bit and freshly made (never frozen) is the best. Here’s a pic of a freshly made, never frozen, moist dduk and then dry, old, cracked dduk below. Rice cake can also develop cracks if it has been frozen and defrosted a few times.

fresh dduk

dry, old, cracked dduk

If your dduk is frozen, let it defrost in cold water for a few minutes and drain.

2. Add water, gochujang and sugar to a pan and bring to a boil on medium high heat. I forgot to stir before taking this picture but yes.. you should stir it at some point before it boils. You can use less gochujang if you like things less spicy.

water, gochujang and sugar for ddukbokki

3. Add the dduk to the gochujang water and lower the heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes.

dduk in gochujang water for ddukbokki

And it should look something like this:

ddukbokki is done

There you go! That’s it!! This ddukbokki will probably taste a bit different from the ones you may have tasted before but you should definitely give this a try. It has a very clean, spicy and sweet taste that’s quite addicting.

Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top if you’d like. Fish cake (oden) soup or yache twigim are perfect compliments to this if you want to make this into a complete dinner good enough to have friends over.

Oh and you may wonder..these dduk look like they have cracks in them! Yes, I bought these on purpose to show on this post.  But I couldn’t just throw them away so I used them in this recipe…

shabu shabu Korean style

I have just posted Shabu Shabu-Korean style on my other blog – What’s for dinner, Mom?. It is a wonderfully nutritious and delicious meal that is simple to prepare and also a lot of fun to eat!

Enjoy!

Korean Rice Cake Soup (떡국 Dduk Gook)

Every New Year’s day,  Koreans make Dduk Gook/Tteok Guk (떡국) and share it with their family and guests who visit their homes. During the New Year holiday, many Koreans travel back to their hometown. They visit their parents and elderly relatives to pay their respects by bowing (Saebae 세배) to them, wishing them health and good fortune. Children receive blessings and words of wisdom from the elders, as well as  monetary gifts called Saebaedon (세배돈). This was my favorite time of the year because it meant that if I did good, I would have enough money to buy myself goodies throughout the whole year! (or at least until my birthday in summer.. ) Oh, but there was something that I did not like – we all had to wear traditional Korean clothes (Hanbok 한복) all day and they were pretty but quite uncomfortable. The traditional way to wear hanbok is to wrap the skirt around your chest and tie it very, very tight. I mean really tight.. so tight I thought I was going to die because I couldn’t breathe!

No one knows for sure exactly why Dduk Gook became a traditional Korean food to eat at home on New Year’s day. There are two theories: one theory is that because rice was harvested in the fall and in the old days there were no means of storing it long-term, making rice cake was a way of using up old rice; another theory (based on customary beliefs) has to do with yin and yang and that New Year’s day represents the yang (positive) energy and also so does the rice cake. Don’t ask me why exactly rice cake represents yang energy…

Long time ago, the stock for the rice cake soup was made from pheasant meat. In more modern times, beef stock has become the standard. You can also use anchovy stock or chicken stock. Anchovy stock is not as rich tasting as beef stock but it is easier, quicker and has a cleaner taste. It is also lower in calories, so I like using anchovy stock for everyday dduk gook.

OK enough talk.. let’s start cooking!

Prep Time: 10 min.   Cooking Time: 35 min.      Servings: 4     

Ingredients for anchovy stock Dduk Gook

• 1 lb rice cake slices/ovalettes for soup (떡국떡 Dduk guk dduk)
• 8 C anchovy stock (see my tips page for making anchovy stock)
• 2 green onions
• 1/2 sliced onion (optional)
• 1 julienned carrot (optional)
• 1 T chopped garlic
• 1 T gook kanjang (국간장)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• black pepper

For garnish:

• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp oil for frying
• 1/2 lb beef stew meat/brisket or ground beef (optional)
• seasoning for the beef:
• 4 tsp soy sauce (Kikkoman)
• 4 tsp sugar
• 1 T rice cooking wine
• 1 T sesame oil
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1. Prepare the anchovy stock. Read My Tips page on how to make anchovy stock.

2. Rinse and soak rice cake in cold water (especially if the rice cake is frozen) for 5 to 10 minutes.

korean rice cake slices(Dduk Gook Dduk) soaking in water

2. The traditional and more formal way is to prepare garnishes with eggs and meat.You can skip the garnish if you want to. But if you are using anchovy stock, I would recommend that you at least make the meat garnish because it adds a lot more flavor to the soup.

First, let’s prepare the egg. This way, you can reuse the frying pan to cook the beef after you cook the eggs.   Whip 2 eggs in a bowl and season with some salt and pepper. Drizzle some canola oil in a non-stick frying pan and heat on medium high heat. Pour the egg into the pan and immediately lift the pan off the heat. Swirl the egg around the pan to spread it evenly to make a thin crepe like pancake. Put the pan back onto the heat, lower the heat to medium and when the egg is almost cooked like the picture below, turn it over.

frying egg for dduk guk

When the egg is all cooked, take it out of the pan and let it cool on your cutting board. When it is cool enough to handle, fold it into overlapping thirds (tri-fold).  This way, you can cut the strips more uniformly.

cutting the egg garnish for dduk guk

Let’s prepare the beef.  If you are working with a piece of brisket or stew meat, slice the meat into thin strips and season it with soy sauce, sugar, mirin, garlic, pepper and sesame oil. Mix it well.

marinated beef strips for dduk guk

You can also use ground beef instead – this will save you the extra work of slicing the beef.  Cook the beef in a frying pan on medium high heat until fully cooked. No need to add any extra oil.

beef garnish for dduk guk

3. Heat the anchovy stock in a pot over medium high heat. Season the soup by adding salt, gook kanjang and chopped garlic. You can also add sliced onions and carrots to the soup to add some color and additional nutrients. Bring to a boil.

boiling soup stock with onions and carrots added

4. Drain the rice cake slices and add to the boiling soup. Cover the pot and cook for few minutes. When the rice cakes float to the top, they are now cooked and ready to eat. Turn off the heat, sprinkle some black pepper and add sliced green onions.

dduk guk boiling in pot

5. Taste the soup and adjust seasoning if needed. Add more salt if needed. Ladle the rice cake soup into a bowl and garnish with some beef and egg prepared above. Sprinkle some sesame seeds if you’d like and there you go!

Serve with some kimchi, mandoo(dumplings) and hobahk jeon and you have a great comforting meal. Enjoy!

Notes

slicing Korean garaedduk to make dduk guk dduk

- What is Korean Dduk/Tteok? The word “Dduk or Tteok” (떡) refers to a general class of Korean rice cakes that is made by mixing rice flour (can be either sweet or plain rice) with water and steaming them. Various ingredients such as mugwort (쑥 suk), pumpkin (호박 hobahk) and red bean (팥paht) can be added to it.  They are called suk dduk (쑥떡),  hobahk dduk(호박떡) and paht dduk(팥떡), respectively. You can see how the naming works. The rice cakes used for rice cake soup start out as garaedduk/garaetteok (가래떡) which are shaped like logs and then are cut into slices as shown in the picture. This type of dduk is called 떡꾹떡(dduk guk dduk) meaning “rice cake made for soup”.

- How to store dduk gook dduk (rice cake ovalettes for soup): Dduk gook dduk will usually start to mold after few days in the refrigerator so keep any leftover uncooked rice cake ovalettes in the freezer and they will keep for months. Thawing rice cake is quick and easy (just soak it in cold water for few minutes) and freezing it also does not affect the taste- so no worries!

- How to store leftover dduk gook/tteok gook: Unfortunately leftover dduk guk turns into one giant glob of rice paste. The rice cake will start to get very mushy and the soup will become very thick. Some people actually enjoy this but I don’t. So it’s best not to have any leftovers and if you do, drain the soup so you can keep the rice cakes and the soup separate.

Yaksik (Korean Sweet Rice Dessert)

Here it is – FINALLY a Yaksik recipe that I’m happy with. One that’s easy and quick but also authentic tasting. I wanted to post about Yaksik much sooner but the recipe I got from my mother-in-law takes about 8 hours (not including the time to soak the rice in water) which was just too time consuming for anyone to really try. I  have to confess that I couldn’t even get myself to try it!!! There are many Yaksik recipes that requires much less time but I did not like the taste of most of them. Most were too mushy, too sweet, not sweet enough or flavorful enough. The rice in Yaksik should be a bit chewy and many recipes fail to yield the right texture. Anyway, I am proud to finally post this recipe which is my own unique version based on various recipes from my friends and also from a couple of old cook books that I had.

Before we get into cooking, a few quick comments – Yaksik was created by the same person who invented Yakwa (check my story of two Korean sweets) and is meant to be a snack or a dessert. Yaksik is eaten at room temperature and will keep for a few days (during cool season) since it is quite well seasoned. For longer storage, you can refrigerate or freeze it and thaw or heat quickly in the microwave. Yaksik not only tastes good but is also very healthy. The fabulous nutritional properties about sweet rice is that it’s very easy on the stomach (it’s great for people who have digestion problems) and also coats the stomach which means it’s great for people who have frequent heartburn. My sister #2 always had heartburn problems and her father-in-law told her that she could actually cure it by eating sweet rice cakes (찹쌀떡 chapssal-dduk) for breakfast everyday. Her heartburn went away after eating sweet rice cakes for 6 months!! In addition to sweet rice, jujube (대추 Daechoo) and chestnuts are added to Yaksik. Jujube has long been known to be an anti-aging food in eastern medicine and it also has calming effects that can help with nervous tension, anxiety and insomnia. Jujube tea is also great for preventing colds (it keeps your body warm) and strengthening the liver. Chestnuts have tons of vitamin C and vitamin Bs which help to also strengthen your stomach, especially with diarrhea. Finally, this dessert does not contain any flour so it’s almost gluten free. Soy sauce is made from wheat so I can’t say it’s totally gluten free but should be fine for people who are gluten sensitive like me. (I tested negative for Celiac disease but I know eating a lot of breads, cakes and pasta will lead to bloating and diarrhea. So therefore I’m “gluten sensitive”.)

A note about my mother-in-law’s original, authentic recipe – the rice is soaked for 5 hours, steamed for an hour (you can use a bamboo steamer and line it with some cheese cloth and spread out the soaked sweet rice before steaming) and then cooked further in a double boiler for 6 hours after it is seasoned. So that’s 12 hours or more!! It does taste divine though… but we have modern inventions like steam rice cookers so let’s just take advantage of that.

The following recipe takes about 2 hours in total and about an hour of actual cooking time when using a pressure cooker.

Ingredients

• 4 C sweet rice
• 2 C water
• (1 1/3 to 1 1/2 C sugar + 3 T honey) OR (1 1/2 C dark brown sugar)
• 4 T soy sauce
• 4 T sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder (optional – not in my MIL’s recipe)
• 1 13 oz canned chestnuts or 1 1/2 C peeled chestnuts (uncooked)
• 1 C dried jujubes (aka dried red dates)
• 2 T pine nuts

You need: a pressure cooker (pressure rice cooker works best), 8×8 cake pan or 12 or more cupcake liners or remekins.

1. Measure the sweet rice and soak in cold water for 1 hour (soak 5 hours if you are cooking in the microwave instead of a pressure cooker).

2. Measure and prepare the pine nuts, chestnuts and jujubes. Drain the syrup from the canned chestnuts and set aside. Canned chestnuts work best but you can also use uncooked peeled chestnuts.

canned chestnuts

Wash the dried jujubes, making sure the dust in between the wrinkles are completely washed away. Dry them with a towel. If they are seeded, cut around the seed. If they are seedless, one less thing to do! Cut the flesh into small squares (1/2 inch) or strips.

pine nuts and jujubes

Save the seeds and make some jujube water by boiling and then simmering the seeds in 2  cups of water for 10 min. Now you have jujube tea (대추차 daechucha) which you can drink with some honey and also use some to cook the rice later. Jujube water adds much more flavor.

Preparing jujubes

3. After the sweet rice has soaked for an hour, drain the water from the rice. Cook the rice in a pressure rice cooker by adding 2 C of water (use 1/2 C of the jujube water from step 2 if you can) and follow the instructions for cooking regular white rice. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can cook the rice in the microwave – add about 1 C of water and cook on high for 10 minutes.

4. When the rice is cooked (the rice will be very sticky but should not be too mushy), add the sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and cinnamon powder. Mix the rice well but not too much because it will become too starchy. Stir only until the rice is evenly seasoned.

seasoned sweet rice

5. Add the jujubes, chestnuts and pine nuts. Fold them into the rice.

sweet rice with everything added

6. Put everything back in the pressure cooker and if you have a ‘steam’ option, steam for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a ‘steam’ option, just choose the shortest rice cook time and cook it again.

7. You are ready to serve Yaksik now (or later). Fill a 8×8 cake pan with the Yaksik and let it cool. Once it’s cool to touch, cover it to keep it from drying.  Cut it into small squares or 2/3 in thick slices and serve. You can also spoon them into cupcake cups or ramekins like the picture below. Again, when it’s cooled, cover with some plastic wrap.

Yaksik served in a ramekin

Variations

• Some recipes add caramel sauce instead of honey. My sister #1 actually adds about 2 T of molasses instead of honey. I did not get to test it this time around but I do remember my sister’s Yaksik tasting really good too so you can give that a try.
• Sister #1 also likes to add other dried fruits (apricots, raisins..) and I think that’s a great way to add more fiber to the dish.

Joomukbap using TJ’s Onigiri

This is the quickest and easiest way to make Joomukbap if you don’t have the time or don’t want to get into making the rice, etc.  My trick is to use Trader Joe’s frozen Yaki Onigiri (Baked Japanese Rice Triangle)! I posted the full recipe of the Korean Samgak Joomukbap recently so if you want to make some authentic Korean Joomukbap, please refer to my previous post. But I’m sure you will agree that in reality we are always short on time in the morning! I have to confess, I ended up making this version for my daughter quite a few times or maybe more than a “few times”…

Now, if you have the fillings already made, it takes only about 5 min. Even if you don’t have the fillings made, you can still choose some of the quicker options such as Spam and Tuna with Mayo (refer to my Samgak Joomukbap posting)  and make Joomukbap in 10 min or less. So always have this as a backup in your freezer for desperate times when you didn’t get to prepare the rice in advance or if you just got up too late in the morning.

So hopefully you have a Trader Joe’s store nearby – here’s what the package looks like and you should find it in the frozen section.

Trader Joe’s Onigiri

1. Follow the package instructions and defrost the rice triangle pieces in the microwave. If you don’t already have the fillings made, follow the instructions on my previous Joomukbap post and make the fillings.

2. When the rice pieces are warmed up, make a hole in the middle and put the fillings in.

Joomukbap with ground beef(left) and spam(right)

3. Cut up some pieces of Kimbap Kim (Seaweed/Nori) and wrap the rice pieces or spread shredded Kim on the outside. Or you can also coat with Babiran seasonings or other Furikake type flakes.

cut up Kimbap Kim(Nori)

4. When you pack the rice pieces for lunch, individually wrap them in plastic wrap. This keeps them moist and also easy to eat.

Some additional filling ideas: Myulchi Bokkeum(멸치볶음), Artificial Crabmeat in Mayo(오양맛살), Shitake Mushrooms stir fried in soy sauce, mirin and sugar.

Different kinds of Joomukbap

Enjoy your lunch!