Teokbokki

Teokbokki is a dish made with rice cake, different veggies, and meats cooked in a sauce base usually made of gochujang. Gochujang is a fermented red pepper paste. Alter some levels of the chili paste to your liking since fermented ingredients can be an acquired taste. My recipe has bits and pieces from recipes found all over from the internet to books and friends.

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of fresh or frozen rice cake

1 cup sliced carrots

1 small zucchini sliced

1 handful of chopped onions

1 green onion

Broth:

2 cups of water

2 dried shitake mushrooms

1 tsp ginger (if not fresh add 2)

Optional-add anchovies or sauce

Sauce:

3 tbsp red pepper paste

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp soy sauce

Dash of pepper flakes

Optional-add some ketchup to make sweeter if too spicy less or no pepper flakes

Set fish cakes if frozen out to thaw, then soak them in water for 30 minutes until dehydrated. If fresh you can skip this step. Set rice cakes aside. Start making the stock first by bringing the water to a boil, add the mushrooms and let boil for 10 minutes, add ginger. let cook for 20 minutes. Remove pot from heat. Prepare sauce by combining ingredients in a large skillet or wok, careful to not let pepper paste burn* add the broth to the sauce mixture. Taste to see if it is to your liking. Add more sugar if too spicy or add more pepper flakes if not spicy enough. Add carrots to sauce let cook for a few minutes, then add onion and zucchini; let cook one minute. Add rice cakes and cook till they are soft. Add green onion as garnish.

*Side note:if you worry about over cooking your veggies you can boil the rice cakes before adding them to the sauce to shorten the time they cook with the vegetables.

You can add different veggies to this recipe, I altered it from the traditional cabbage. I also changed the stock which is usually a anchovy stock with kelp. Since I didn’t have fish cakes I made a mushroom stock instead.