Tteokbokki Recipe: Spicy Rice Cakes at Home
Tteokbokki is chewy rice cakes simmered in a sweet-spicy gochujang sauce. The secret is anchovy-kelp stock. Here is the full method plus UK sourcing for garaetteok.
What Tteokbokki Is
Tteokbokki (떡볶이) is cylindrical rice cakes simmered in a red gochujang-based sauce until they are chewy, glossy, and coated through. Fish cake sheets, spring onions, and boiled eggs round it out. The dish is Korean street food at its most accessible: quick to cook, immediately satisfying, intensely spiced. It is sold from pojangmacha (street tents) across Korea and eaten standing up with a wooden skewer, often alongside fried foods and fish cakes on sticks.
The version covered here is the spicy street-food style, not gungjung tteokbokki, which is the older royal-court version made with soy sauce and beef. When anyone outside Korea says "tteokbokki", they mean this one.
The Anchovy-Kelp Stock
This is the part most UK home recipes skip, and it is why home tteokbokki often tastes thin compared to the restaurant version. The sauce is not made from water. It is built on a short dashi-style stock made from dried large anchovies (myeolchi) and dashima kelp.
The method takes 15 minutes and makes everything else better.
Put 500 ml of cold water in a saucepan. Add 7 to 8 large dried anchovies (head and black intestinal tract removed) and one 10 cm piece of dried dashima kelp. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Hold at a simmer for 10 minutes, then remove and discard the anchovies and kelp. You now have a clear, savoury stock.
The stock can be made ahead and refrigerated for two days. If you find yourself cooking tteokbokki regularly, make a larger batch and freeze it in portions.
Dried anchovies for stock must be the large variety (10 cm or longer). Smaller anchovies are used for banchan side dishes and have a different flavour. Both dried anchovies and dashima are available at Wing Yip, Oriental Mart, and Japan Centre in London, and via Amazon (look for "myeolchi" or "large dried anchovies").
UK Sourcing for Garaetteok
Fresh garaetteok (the cylindrical rice cakes, roughly 6 cm long and 1.5 cm across) are the best option. They are soft, pliable, and need only 8 to 10 minutes in the simmering sauce. In the UK, fresh garaetteok is stocked refrigerated at Oriental Mart in New Malden, Wing Yip branches, and Korean convenience stores in London. Use them within three days of purchase or freeze them as soon as you get home.
Dried garaetteok is the practical alternative. It keeps for up to 12 months in the cupboard and is available on Amazon and through Sous Chef. The preparation step is non-negotiable: soak dried rice cakes in cold water for at least 30 minutes before cooking. Without soaking, dried cakes take much longer to soften and cook unevenly, with a hard centre and soft exterior.
Frozen garaetteok falls between the two. Thaw fully before adding to the pan.
Pulmuone is a reliable brand for both fresh and frozen varieties and is reasonably well distributed through UK online retailers.
Sauce Ratio (serves 2)
Using 2 cups (500 ml) of anchovy-kelp stock:
- Gochujang: 2 tablespoons - Gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes): 1 tablespoon - Sugar: 1 tablespoon - Soy sauce: 1 teaspoon - Garlic, minced: 2 cloves
Combine the gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, soy, and garlic in a small bowl before the stock comes to a simmer. This lets the paste dissolve properly when it goes into the pan rather than forming lumps.
Cooking Method
Bring the anchovy stock to a simmer in a wide pan or skillet. Stir in the sauce paste. Let it simmer together for about 5 minutes so the sauce body develops and the raw garlic softens.
Add the rice cakes. If using soaked dried cakes or fresh ones, they go in now. Stir every couple of minutes to prevent sticking. The starch from the rice cakes will thicken the sauce naturally as they cook. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. The sauce should reduce to a thick, glossy coating that clings to each rice cake. Fresh cakes are done when they are soft all the way through with a slight chew at the centre; dried cakes take the full 10 minutes.
Add fish cake strips (eomuk or odeng, available frozen at Wing Yip and Sous Chef) for the last 3 minutes. They are already cooked and just need to heat through and absorb the sauce. Add sliced spring onions in the final minute.
Take the pan off the heat and rest for 2 minutes. The resting time matters: the rice cakes continue to absorb sauce and the flavour concentrates slightly.
Halved boiled eggs go on top at serving.
Spice Calibration for UK Palates
Street-stall tteokbokki in Seoul is hot by most British standards. The quantities above produce a genuine, assertive heat. If you want to cook for people who are sensitive to spice, start with 1 tablespoon of gochujang and half a tablespoon of gochugaru per two portions, then taste and adjust once the sauce has simmered for a few minutes.
The sugar is as important as the chilli. Tteokbokki is simultaneously sweet and spicy; cutting one without adjusting the other throws the balance off. If you reduce the gochujang, reduce the sugar by half a tablespoon as well.
Variants Worth Knowing
**Rose tteokbokki:** Add 3 tablespoons of double cream and a handful of grated mozzarella at the end of cooking. Stir the cream through, let it reduce for two minutes, then scatter the cheese on top and cover with a lid for a minute to melt. The cream mellows the spice considerably. This went viral in Korea around 2020 and is now common on chain menus.
**Rabokki:** Add a nest of instant ramyun noodles (removed from the package) to the simmering sauce two minutes before the rice cakes are done. The noodles absorb the sauce and cook through quickly. Use slightly more stock than normal because the noodles soak up liquid fast. This is popular for a more filling version of the dish.
**Jjajang tteokbokki:** Replace the gochujang with chunjang (Korean black bean paste). The result is less spicy, nuttier, and significantly different in character. Still very good. Chunjang is available at Wing Yip and Korean grocery stores.
UK Sourcing Summary
Tier 1 (Amazon, Tesco, Sainsbury's): gochujang (CJ Haechandle, Chung Jung One), dried garaetteok, gochugaru, sesame oil. Tier 2 (Wing Yip, Oriental Mart, New Malden Korean stores): fresh garaetteok, frozen fish cake sheets, dried anchovies, dashima kelp. Tier 3 (Sous Chef online): dashima, dried garaetteok, fish cake, specialist gochujang varieties.
