Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes) · Maangchi

If your rice cakes are frozen or stiff, thaw them and soak in cold water about 10 minutes, until they bend a little instead of snapping.

💡 Freshly made rice cakes soften much faster and may need no soaking at all — check by bending one.

Snap the head off each dried anchovy and pinch out the dark guts inside, leaving 7 clean bodies.

💡 The guts are what turn a stock bitter and fishy. Two minutes here decides how clean the whole dish tastes.

Put the 4 cups of water, the anchovies and the sheet of kelp into a wide, shallow pot or a deep frying pan.

Boil uncovered over medium-high heat for 15 minutes. The water should turn a pale straw gold and smell savoury rather than fishy.

While the stock boils, stir the gochujang, gochugaru and sugar together in a small bowl into a smooth paste.

Fish out the anchovies and the kelp and throw them away. You should have roughly 2 1/2 cups of stock left in the pot.

💡 Leaving them in past this point makes the sauce cloudy and slightly bitter — pull them out even if you are in a hurry.

Drain the rice cakes and slide them into the stock.

Spoon in the chili paste mixture and stir once to loosen it into the stock.

Add the green onions, and the fish cakes and hard-boiled eggs if you are using them.

Bring it up to a boil over medium-high heat, then stir gently with a wooden spoon.

Keep it simmering and keep stirring for 10 to 15 minutes, until the rice cakes go soft and chewy and the sauce turns thick and glossy enough to coat the back of the spoon.

💡 Stirring is not optional — rice cakes sink and glue themselves to the bottom the moment you walk away.

If the rice cakes are still firm when the sauce has already tightened, splash in a little more water and carry on stirring until they soften.

Take it off the heat and eat it hot, straight away — this is a dish that waits for nobody.