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Tteokbokki Recipe

Before Mama was a social media STAR, she was locally the most well known for her squid tteokbokki. Whenever we would show up to family/friend dinners she would always be asked to bring her tteokbokki! As her daughter, I found so much pride in the fact that my mom made the BEST tteokbokki in town teehee. Before these dinners, mama would always ask me to taste-test her almost final product and ask if there’s anything missing. So as her long-term taste tester, it’s an honor to present to you her recipe!

Now what’s unique about mama’s recipe is that it uses NO GOCHUJANG. Repeat after me… NO GOCHUJANG. Gochujang is seen as one of tteokbokki’s staple components but not in this tteokbokki! Now are y’all ready?!?!?

@hoemgirl she has been KNOWN for this dish for decades now… only the real ones know #spicyricecakes #koreanfoodrecipe #mukbangkorea ♬ original sound - Sarah 호정 Kim

Shall we get started?

Ingredients: (this will be Korean mom style, free-handing it. Time to trust your gut/taste buds!)

  • Vegetable oil
  • Gochugaru (chili pepper flakes)
  • Rice cakes
  • Squid (optional but makes it REAL tasty)
  • Veggie of choice (we recommend carrots/onion/cabbage)
  • Soy Sauce
  • Sugar
  • Garlic
  • Fish Cakes
  • Corn Syrup

How to Make:

  • 1. On a pan, heat up a vegetable oil of your choice. You’re going to want a generous amount that can stir-fy your squid, veggies, and gochugaru.
  • 2. Once heated, add your gochugaru, squid, and veggies. Stir-fry these ingredients on low-heat.
  • 3. Water will be your BEST FRIEND. Obvi don’t over do it but you’re going to want to add a little bit at a time throughout cooking the dish especially when it starts to look dry! Add a bit of water to your lightly stir-fried ingredients.
  • 4. Add your rice cakes! They should not be cooked separately. (Aka, make sure they’re hard when you put them in.)
  • 5. With the rice cakes, add in your mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and more gochugaru! If you’re not familiar with free-handing the ingredients, start with little and then add on while taste testing in between! The last thing you want is to run out of rice cakes and have a really salty dish 🙁
  • 6. On medium heat, cook everything in the pan!
  • 7. While the rice cakes are slightly undercooked, add the fishcakes. You’re going to want to add more water here because the fishcakes tend to absorb the moisture you already have.
  • 8. As the fish cakes & rice cakes are done cooking, add garlic to bring richness/complexity to the dish. For my garlic lovers out there, put in as much as you want bc there’s no such thing as too much!
  • 9. If you like your tteokbokki on the sweeter side, you can put in some corn syrup.
  • 10. ENJOY~

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