Spicy Rice Cakes (Tteokbokki)

Spicy rice cakes (Tteokbokki) is a popular Korean dish. 

This dish is Bryan (my boyfriend)’s favorite. Every time we eat at a Korean restaurant, this dish will definitely be on our order list. His “obsession” with this dish started in college when he visited Korea for a study abroad program.

He says that after a few bottles of soju on a night out, nothing is quite as satisfying. Late into the night, street vendors drop this delicious dish directly into a small plastic bag from a piping hot slow cooker where the sauce has been slowly reducing down all day, culminating in a fiery burst of flavor with each bite.

This spicy rice cakes recipe has passed my boyfriend’s picky palate. I am quite confident you will like it as well, if you are a fan of spicy food.

If you are on board, then let’s get started!

The stock is a very important part of this dish. It gives the entire dish a umami base flavor. To make the stock, I simmered dried anchovies and dried kelps with water for about 15 minutes for the flavor to be released.

Before using the dried anchovies, the heads and intestines of the anchovies need to be removed.

Now let’s talk about the seasonings. 

When it comes to making a spicy Korean dish, the number one ingredient to use is the hot pepper paste (Gochujiang). Gochujiang is a very thick and concentrated condiment, a little usually goes a long way. 

Besides hot pepper paste, I also used a little bit soy bean paste (Doenjiang) – another backbone ingredient of Korean cooking. Doenjiang is salty, adding it helps to bring out the spicy flavor even more. Plus, add another level of flavor.

After the stock has turned into a thick, spoon-coating sauce, this dish will be ready! The smell and look of the dish always makes my mouth water even before enjoying it. Look at that!

Like other types of popular food, there are many different tteokbokki recipes. This one is pretty basic, it follows the South Korean street vendors style, very easy to make at home.

Start from here, you can add additional add-on ingredients, such as boiled egg, instant noodles, etc. to create a more fancy spicy rice cakes dish.

I hope you enjoy making this Spicy Rice Cake (Tteokbokki). If you like this recipe, please leave a rating and share it with your friends!