I’ve been on a roll cooking up Korean food lately. I have a few more dishes I need to learn before I can say I know all the basics of Korean cooking. Then I can finally cross that off my bucket list! Lately, I’ve been craving the street food in Korea like tteokbokki or ddukbokki. I especially like the ones they sell on a stick!
Tteokbokki is supposed to be one of those dishes that’s really simple and easy to make, so I decided to give it a try. I was pretty happy with the end result, and Jacob told me it was the best tteokbokki he’s ever had. He may be a bit biased since a happy wife = happy life. But you should try it and let me know what you think!
Ddukbokki Recipe | Korean Food 떡볶이
(adapted from my mom’s recipe and maangchi)
Ingredients:
- 7 large size dried anchovies, with heads and intestines removed
- 6 x 8 inch of dashima / dried kelp
- 4 cups of water
- 16 oz package of cylinder-shaped rice cake
- 1/4 cup Korean hot pepper paste
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon Korean hot pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 hard-boiled eggs (optional)
- ½ pound fish cakes (optional)
- 3 green onions, cut into 3 inch long pieces
Directions:
- Add the dried anchovies, dried kelp, and water to a shallow pot or pan.
- Bring to a boil over medium-high heat without the lid (approx 15 mins).
- Remove the anchovies and kelp and discard.
- Add the rice cake, hot pepper paste, ketchup, sugar, hot pepper flakes, garlic, fish cakes, and hard-boiled eggs to the soup base.
- Continue to stir so that the rice cake does not stick to the bottom until the sauce thickens (approx 10 minutes).
- Add green onions and stir in for a minute.
- Remove from the heat and serve hot.
Chef’s Notes:
- Depending on how sweet or spicy you like it, add more sugar or hot pepper paste.
- You’ll see in the photo below that I added in the green onions in step four and they got too soggy.
- I put a slice of mozzarella cheese on top. I don’t think that’s the kind people normally use.
- It’s an easy recipe, but if you want to take an easier route, there’s an instant version.
Have you tried making What’s your favorite Korean dish? Maybe I will try to make that next. 
Elisa
1 Jun 2014I made it. This is the best ddukbbokki recipe I have tried so far thanks for the great recipe!!
Joyce Gonzales
10 Dec 2013I super love 떡볶이.. I’ve been wanting to try cooking this, thanks to your recipe it looks so easy to prepare. :) Some of my other faves are bulgogi, sweet and sour pork, and dwenjang chigae.. :)
esther julee
10 Dec 2013It isn not too bad! :) I also put up a dwenjang jjigae recipe on the blog too: http://www.estherandjacob.com/doenjang-jjigae-recipe-korean-food/
Everyone makes Korean food a little bit differently I feel like. And rarely use measurements… they just kind of start adding a little bit of this and that and feel it out until it tastes good to them. haha
Rewind Symphony
11 Nov 2013This is awesome! Thanks so much for putting this recipe together.
esther julee
11 Nov 2013No problem! :) If you make it, let me know! I would love to hear what you think.
Jen
10 Nov 2013This does look fairly simple! I’ll have to try it sometime. :)
esther julee
10 Nov 2013Let me know how it goes! :) Or we can have you guys over when we make it again. We still have another bag of dduk.
Jen
12 Nov 2013Ooh we would love to! Just let us know. :D