Korea's Traditional Rice Cake

Songpyeon 송편

Songpyeon is a traditional Korean food made of glutinous rice. It is a type of tteok, consisting of small rice cakes traditionally eaten during the Korean autumn harvest festival, Chuseok. They have become a popular symbol of traditional Korean culture. Songpyeon are half-moon-shaped rice cakes that contain different kinds of sweet or semi-sweet fillings, such as sesame seeds and honey, sweet red bean paste, and chestnut paste steamed over a layer of pine needles, which gives them the fragrant smell of fresh pine trees. They were made into various shapes with the participation of family members and were often exchanged between neighbors.

The earliest records of songpyeon date from the Goryeo period.

Song means pine tree, and pyon means steamed rice cake. The tteok is used in ancestral rites and celebration.

Ingredients:

Frozen rice flour

salt

water

sesame seeds

sesame oil

dried and skinned mung beans

brown sugar

white sugar

pine needles

mugwort powder (ssook garu in Korean)

strawberry Jell-o powder

Directions:

Make the dough:

1. Prepare a package of rice powder (2 lbs) usually sold frozen at a Korean grocery store. Just before using it, you must thaw it until the powder is at room temperature.
2. Put rice powder through a sifter to make the powder fine.Tip: If your rice powder is very fine, you can skip sifting. If your rice powder is coarse, you may have to grind it with a food processor or coffee grinder before sifting.
3. Prepare 3 stainless bowls and put 1 cup of finely sifted rice powder into the each bowl. (Bowl A, B, and C)
4. Boil 2 cups of water for your rice dough.
5. Bowl A (white songpyeon): add a pinch of salt and 3 tbs of boiling water and mix it with a wooden spoon. (it’ll be too hot if you use your hands at first) Knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
6. Bowl B (pink songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, a pinch of strawberry Jell-o powder, and 3 tbs of boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.
7. Bowl C (green songpyeon): add a pinch of salt, 1 ts of ssookgaru(mugwort power) and 3.5 tbs boiling water. Mix it with a wooden spoon and knead the rice dough for about 5 minutes. Put the dough into a plastic bag and set it aside.Tip: You will need to add 3.5 tbs of water because of  the 1 ts of ssookgaru.

Make the filling:

Roasted sesame seeds powder filling:

1. Grind ¼ cup of roasted sesame seeds using a coffee grinder for 15-20 seconds.
2. Transfer the ground sesame powder into a small bowl and mix it with ¼ cup of brown sugar and a pinch of salt.Tip: if you grind too long, the powder will become sticky from the oil in the seeds.

Mung bean powder filling:

1. Wash and drain ¼ cup of dried and skinned mung beans and put them in a pot with a thick bottom.
2. Add ¼ cup of water and a pinch of salt to the pot and simmer it for 30 minutes.Tip: Be sure not to burn it – simmer over the lowest heat.
3. Open the pot and use your wooden spoon to crush the beans into fine powder.Tip: if you make more than ¼ cup of mung bean powder, you may have to use your grinder or food processor to grind it finely.
4. Transfer the crushed mung bean powder into a small bowl or container and wait until it cools down.
5. Add ¼ cup of white sugar and mix it. That’s it!

Let’s make songpyeon now!

1. Break off a piece of rice dough about 1 inch in diameter and roll it between your palms to make a rice ball. Then press your thumb in the center of the ball to make it shaped like a cup.
2. Fill the cup with either sesame filling or mung bean filling using a small spoon, and seal it using your thumb and index fingers.
3. Place all the raw rice cakes (songpyeon) on a plate.
4. Wash your pine needles thoroughly with a little dish soap. Towel dry them.
5. Put some water (4 cups) into a steamer and boil it. When it starts boiling, place a damp cotton cloth on the bottom of the steamer tray.
6. Make a bed of pine needles on the wet cloth and put the raw songpyeon on top. Put more pine needles on top of the songpyeon, too.Tip: Pine needles stop the songpyeon from sticking together and give them a good flavor. 
7. Steam it for 25 minutes over medium high heat.
8. Prepare some cold water in a large bowl, and drop in a little sesame oil.
9. Dump your steamed songpyeon into to the cold water and quickly remove pine needles. Take them out, put them on a plate to serve.

(>‿◠)✌

Korea's Spicy Rice Cake

Tteokbokki 떡볶이

Tteokbokki (also known as topokki) is a popular Korean snack food made from soft rice cake, fish cake and sweet red chili sauce. It is commonly purchased from street vendors or pojangmacha. Originally it was called tteok jjim (떡찜) and was a savory braised dish of sliced rice cake, meat, eggs, and seasoning.

Tteok jjim, an early variant of modern tteokbokki, was once a part of Korean royal court cuisine. This type of topokki was made by boiling Garaetteok, meat, vegetables, eggs, and seasonings in water, and then serving it topped with ginkgo nuts and walnuts. In its original form, tteokbokki, which was then known as gungjung tteokbokki, was a dish served in the royal court and regarded as a representative example of haute cuisine. The original tteokbokki was a stir-fried dish consisting of garaetteok (가래떡, cylinder-shaped tteok) combined with a variety of ingredients, such as beef,mung bean sprouts, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and onions, and seasoned with soy sauce.

Following the Korean War a new type of tteokbokki became very popular. While the older version was a savory dish, this latter type was much spicier, and quickly became more popular than the older traditional dish. In addition to traditional ingredients, this tteokbokki used gochujang, a fermented, spicy paste made from chilli peppers, along with fish cakes. Other ingredients added to tteokbokki include boiled eggs, pan-fried mandu (Korean dumplings), sausages, ramyeon (which then becomes rabokki/labokki 라볶이), a variety of fried vegetables, and cheese. These days, many kinds of tteokbokki are popular such as seafood tteokbokki(해물 떡볶이) or rice tteokbokki(쌀떡볶이). Flour tteokbokki was popular in early days, but rice tteokbokki is more popular these days.

Sindang-dong in Seoul, where tteokbokki was first sold, is still very famous for the dish and treated as the mekkah or the center of tteokbokki. Since tteokbokki has become one of the most popular dishes, one will easily find a place to enjoy eating tteokbokki in Korea.

Tteokbokki is a traditional Korean street food which can be usually purchased from street vendors also called “pojangmacha” in Korean. The history of tteokbokki brings us back to the late Joseon dynasty. There are many hypotheses and controversy about its real origin. According to bibliographic data, the first tteokbokki in Korean history is said to appear in a cook book called “시의정서 (Siui jeongseo)” written in the late Joseon dynasty. However, based on the fact that tteok (the main ingredient, also known as rice cake) was produced even before in the Three Kingdoms period, it's possible to assume that the history is longer than what's usually considered. Tteokbokki can also be found in medical records: a book called “싱뇨찬요 (Shingnyo chanyo)” written by Jeon Sunui, a medical officer in the Joseon dynasty (1460). The purpose of the book was to cure people through food and tteokbokki was part of it.

Tteokbokki was also a part of Korean royal court cuisine in the Joseon dynasty. While the modern version of tteokbokki is red and spicy, the original version was brown and plain. It was called "궁중 떡볶이 (gungjung tteokbokki)", Palace Tteokbokki. Just like the name implies, gunjeon tteokbokki was a main example of Korean haute cuisine. It was mainly composed with a combination of tteok, meat, vegetables and different kinds of seasoning. After the introduction of gochujang (Korean spicy paste made of chilli peppers) due to the Japanese influence in Joseon dynasty, tteokbokki became red and spicy. It's believed that the main transition from plain to spicy tteokbokki occurred during the 1950s after the independence of Korea. In modern days, most of the tteokbokki sold in street vendors is red and spicy.

Tteokbokki, nowadays, is mostly regarded as a street food that can be picked up at street vendors (pojangmacha) and small independent snack bars. Recently, however, there have been efforts to turn tteokbokki from street food culture to a food franchise. This is mainly because of the continuous demand for tteokbokki among Korean people. Tteokbokki is now regarded by some as a big potential business. As a result, many brands and chain restaurants of tteokbokki have appeared since 2009. Additionally, there are also efforts to globalize tteokbokki in the international food market. Korean government has established a so-called tteokbokki laboratory in 2009 to try to globalize the dish and to provide technical support for its enhancement. Annually, about a billion Korean won is spent in this governmental project to try to make tteokbokki into an international product. In order to achieve a place for tteokbokki into the global market, there is investigation on market research, development of sauces, types of rice cakes and cooking methods to fit into various countries. The spelling of “topokki” was officially given by this institute in order to appear friendlier for the international market. Most tteokbokki was made of flour in modern days but after this governmental project, there's been encouragement to use rice instead. This is mainly because rice is regarded as healthier than flour and to help boost consumption in the domestic rice market.

Ingredients:

1 pound of cylinder shaped rice cake, bought or homemade. (Use a little more if you’re not adding hard boiled eggs and fish cakes)
4 cups of water
7 large size dried anchovies, with heads and intestines removed
6 x 8 inch dried kelp
1/3 cup hot pepper paste
1 tablespoon hot pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sugar
3 green onions, cut into 3 inch long pieces
2 hard boiled eggs, shelled (optional)
½ pound fish cakes (optional)

Directions:

1. Add the water, dried anchovies, and dried kelp to a shallow pot or pan.
2. Boil for 15 minutes over medium high heat without the lid.
3. Combine hot pepper paste, hot pepper flakes, and sugar in a small bowl. Remove the anchovies and kelp from the pot and add the rice cake, the mixture in the bowl, the green onion, and the optional fish cakes and hard boiled eggs. The stock will be about 2 ½ cups. 
4. Stir gently with a wooden spoon when it starts to boil. Keep stirring until the rice cake turns soft and the sauce thickens and looks shiny, which should take about 10 -15 minutes. If the rice cake is not soft enough, add more water and continue stirring until soften. When you use freshly made rice cake, it takes shorter time. If you use frozen rice cake, thaw it out and soak in cold water to soften it before cooking.
5. Remove from the heat and serve hot.

Masshigetda 맛있겠다~