Soul Food: Exploring Korean Street Food
- Episode 4. “Tteokbokki & Tteok-kochi ” with Chef Youngsun Lee -
The Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) is excited to present an online Korean Cuisine Cooking Series “Soul Food: Exploring Korean Street Food” introducing various Korean street foods currently popular around the world. Chef Youngsun Lee, Chef Hansong Kim, and Director Jong Won Lee based in New York will demonstrate how everyone can cook simply at home using local ingredients with techniques that everyone can try!
As part of the Korean food culture education program, KCCNY is launching 6 episodes that feature easy-to-follow recipes that recreate some of the most beloved street foods of Korea from savory favorites to sweet desserts. From the “classic” dishes like Korean fried chicken and Tteobokki to Korean hot dogs and more, you’ll be able to learn how to make each menu step by step.You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to make Korean street food right at home.
Tteokbokki, a representative street food, has a wide variety of types, and various ingredients are added to suit various tastes, from gung-jung tteokbokki (“Korean royal court” rice cake) and gochujang tteokbokki to cheese, curry, jajang, and rosé sauce. In this 4th episode, Chef Lee's shares his menu for gochujang tteokbokki (traditional tteokbokki: sautéed spicy rice cake), which is very easy to find anywhere in Korea and one of the most beloved street foods. Chef Lee will also share a special recipe of eomuk-tang (Korean fish cake soup), which is a perfect complement to tteokbokki.
The second menu is modern tteokbokki (pan-fried glazed spicy rice cake), which is pan-fried with thin rice cakes and gochujang sauce, and specially served with mozzarella cheese to temper the spiciness. Modern tteokbokki is more popular to young generations as it is pan-fried and the rice cake coated with oil to maintain a chewy texture while slightly crispy on the outside.
The last dish is tteok-kochi (rice cake skewers). There is the so-called 'So-tteok So-tteok (sausage-rice cake-sausage-rice cake skewer in order)' dish, which has become ultra trendy due to its enormous popularity among young people when it was introduced on a TV program. In this episode, Chef Lee includes rice cakes, sausages, and vegetables such as scallion and okra, roasted in a pan, and served with sweet and spicy red pepper paste sauce and mayonnaise. You can make tteok-kochi with any ingredients you want!
Let’s try making Korean street food at home!
This special cooking series is the second online cooking lecture program following KCCNY's “New Korean Cuisine Made Simple”.
Tonight’s Menu!
Traditional Tteokbokki (Sautéed Spicy Rice Cake)
Yields: about 2 servings
INGREDIENTS
3-4 cups Rice cake (stick shape) *preferably thick ones
4-6 cups Dashi/stock
1 cup Onion, julienned
1 cup Scallions, cut 2 inches long
2 TBSP Garlic, minced
2 cups Fish cake
4-6 TBSP (or more) Gochujang
2 TBSP Sugar
2 TBSP Mirin or Mirim (Korean rice wine)
1 TBSP Soy sauce (to taste)
1 TBSP Chili flakes (gochugaru)
2 tsp Sesame oil
2 ea Hard boiled egg, cut in half
COOKING
In a pot, bring dashi to a boil.
Blanch rice cakes just until it becomes soft. Take the rice cakes out and set aside. Save dashi.
In a deep sauté pan, add onion, garlic, gochujang, sugar, mirin/mirim, soy sauce, chili flakes and about 2 cups of saved dashi.
Stir well to loosen gochujang. Bring to a boil.
Add rice cake and fish cake. You can cut fish cake in any style. Bring back to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add scallion and sesame oil. Cook until the rice cake is well seasoned.
Transfer to a plate and garnish with hard boiled eggs.
* With Special Menu: Eomuk-tang (Korean Fish cake soup)
Modern Tteokbokki (Pan-Fried Glazed Spicy Rice Cake)
[RECIPE]
Yields: about 2 servings
INGREDIENTS
3-4 cups Rice cake (stick shape) *preferably thin ones
2 cups Dashi/stock
1 cup Onion, julienned
1 cup Scallions, cut 2 inches long
2 TBSP Garlic, minced
2 cups Fish cake, julienned
4-6 TBSP (or more) Gochujang
2 TBSP Sugar
2 TBSP Mirin or Mirim (Korean rice wine)
1 TBSP Chili flakes (gochugaru)
2 tsp Sesame oil
2 ea Hard boiled egg, cut in half
COOKING
Make sauce by mixing gochujang, sugar, ½ cup of dashi, garlic, chili flakes and sesame oil in a mixing bowl. (strain can be done)
Make sauce by mixing gochujang, sugar, ½ cup of dashi, garlic, chili flakes and sesame oil in a mixing bowl.
Heat a sauté pan, add oil, onion and fish cake. Sauté well until brown. Add sauce and about ½ cup of dashi. Bring to a boil and simmer.
Heat a sauté pan, add oil and rice cakes. Pan-fry rice cakes until golden brown.
Add pan-fried rice cake to the pan with sauce. Cook until the rice cake is nicely glazed.
On a plate, stack glazed rice cake and top with onion and fish cake.
Garnish with scallion and hard-boiled egg crumbles.
* Tip: Push hard-boiled egg through a fine strainer to make “egg crumbles”.
Tteok-kochi (Sausage/Vegetable & Rice Cake Skewer)
[RECIPE]
Yields: about 4 skewers
INGREDIENTS
12 ea Rice cake (finger size)
12 ea Mini sausage
6 ea Okra
6 ea Twist pepper
4 ea Skewers
4 TBSP Gochujang
2 tsp Sugar
1 TBSP Mirin or Mirim (Korean rice wine)
2 cloves Garlic
¼ Onion
As needed Mayonnaise
COOKING
Make a skewer by putting:
sausage---rice cake---sausage---rice cake---sausage---rice cake
Make 2 skewers. (if rice cake is hard, soak in water for about 10 minutes)
Make another skewer by putting:
sausage---rice cake---okra---sausage---rice cake---twist pepper
Make 2 skewers.
In a blender, add garlic, onion, mirin/mirim, sugar and gochujang. Blend well until smooth. Strain and put in a squeeze bottle (or piping bag). This is the “red sauce.”
Put mayonnaise in a squeeze bottle (or piping bag). This is the “white sauce.”
Grill, pan-fry or deep fry.
Grilling: You can place skewers on a grill and grill them until they’re cooked with a nice color. About 2 minutes on each side.
Pan-Frying: Heat the sauté pan hot and add a little bit of oil. Add skewers and pan-fry them until they’re cooked with a nice color. About 2 minutes on each side.
Deep Frying: Set the fryer at 340-360F. Place skewers and deep fry them until the rice cakes are soft. About 2 minutes.
Place cooked skewers on a plate. Squeeze the red sauce and white sauce on skewers.