Tteokbokki with vegetables

April 2, 2023

   

We've been eagerly awaiting the opening of Lunar Mart, a Korean and Japanese grocer that's had 'coming soon' signs up at Barkly Square for months. I stopped in for a browse on their opening weekend and bought an assortment of snacks and cooking ingredients. I was most excited to get my hands on Korean rice cakes.

   

I first came across these rice cakes at Easy Tiger, where they were served with mushrooms and soy beans. The rice cakes are like thick, stout rice noodles, with a texture a bit like mochi and the comfort value of gnocchi. I also recalled that more recently our friend Hayley has been cooking tteokbokki at home, so I asked her for her favourite recipe, and she pointed me to From My Bowl. This suited us well: we already had both gochujang and gochgaru at home, and with lots of vegetables included it looked like a full meal in a single pot.

   

I mucked around a bit with the proportions - in particular, I doubled the amount of cabbage involved, but it cooked right down and didn't ever threaten to overwhelm the carrots, mushrooms or rice cakes. Once the preparatory chopping was done, everything simmered together easily and we had warming bowls of a new comfort food in about half an hour.

Tteokbokki with vegetables

(slightly adapted from a recipe on From My Bowl)

3 cups vegetable stock

1/2 head wombok

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

3 large cloves garlic, minced

2-3 tablespoons gochujang

1 tablespoon gochugaru

2 tablespoons tamari

1 teaspoon sugar

150g shiitake mushrooms, sliced into bite-sized pieces

500g Korean rice cakes

1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, for garnish

sesame seeds, for garnish

Place the stock in a very large saucepan and bring it to a simmer over high heat. Add the cabbage, carrot and garlic, reducing the heat a little and simmering for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the gochujang, gochugaru, tamari and sugar. Add the mushrooms and simmer for 1-2 more minutes. Add the rice cakes and simmer everything for 15-20 minutes, stirring along the way. It's done when the rice cakes are tender and the sauce has thickened.

Turn off the heat and garnish in the pot, or ladled into bowls, with sesame oil and sesame seeds.