QUICK & SIMPLE KOREAN RICE CAKE RECIPES – JOLLY CHEWY IN EVERY BITE

Hi there

If you are a fan of Korean food, you will probably be one of us who loves Korean rice cakes or Toppoki in Korean, those chewy pillowy rice cake, coated with Korean spicy sauce, bringing your palate to different dimensions of flavours in every bite.

I love Korean rice cake, its affordable, filling and best of all love the chewiness, it is just something about it, that is so addictive, the more you eat it the more you will fall in love with this dish, and of course best served while watching your favourite Korean show too! 🙂

I still remember vividly how my Japanese & Korean flatmates will have a Korean rice cake party during my schooling days, we called it Toppoki Party because this dish is so simple yet clean up is such a breeze, and everyone enjoy tucking in this huge hot plate for toppoki or Korean rice cake and just enjoy each other’s company. 🙂

And in my last visit to Shine Korean Supermarket, I saw this pack of instant rice cake, packaging itself says 3 mins is all it takes and it comes with this ready to mix packet sauce.  So to get the all Korean theme going, I have happily used my Happycall pan to demonstrate this recipe. 🙂

What I usually do with Korean rice cake, is I will just get a big bag and keep in the freezer, so as and when I will just thaw out a few pieces and cook it, but as my fridge is fast becoming  fully stuffed, I did not buy this as often as I use to. So having these instant pack is really handy when you have that cravings for it.

This packet is all in japanese, strange thing how it ended up in a Korean supermarket, but lucky for me to pick it up home.

Directions to cook is fairly simple, even for non japanese speaker, they will have no problem understanding it as they have pictures behind the packaging to illustrate how to cook this packet of Korean rice cakes.

What the packaging taught you is to :

• Rinse the rice cake before cooking
• Boil in 100ml of water & cook for 1 min
• Sieve and remain about 30ml of water in the pot
• Pour the packet mixture in and fried for 1 & a half min

But of course if you have been following my postings, you will know I like to experiment with different ingredients or tweak recipes, just to have a little bit of fun along the way, kind of like a kitchen rebel, while cooking up something quick and easy with a lot of bite to it. 🙂

So what I did is I try to stay close to the instructions, rinse the rice cake, actually didn’t even use a bowl or sieve to do the deed, just save time and dishes, rinse directly inside the packet itself. 🙂

Next is to add whatever I like. 🙂 To me, the chewiness of the rice cake is what hook me on, and what goes well with chewiness, the contrary, that is crunchiness, and of course it does not hurt that any fragrant meat that can add even more flavour to a simple dish.

So I have opted for :

• Carrots x 1/2, sliced
• Cabbage x 2 leaf, sliced
• Spring Onions x 2 stalks (you can also add brown onions, but I find, spring onions works as good, and to keep this quick and simple, I recommend you to use this too. :))
• Pork Belly – 4 slices
• Kimchi – 1 tablespoon (optional)

Directions is very simple

• Boil the rice cakes for 1 min
• Stir fry some pork belly on the happycall pan (you can use any pan, perfectly fine)
• Once pork belly looks crispy, add in cabbage, carrots and the white stems of the spring onions (keep the green ones till the last stage)
• Pour in the mixture and fried for 1 min
• Garnish with spring onions and mix the rice cake and serve while piping hot 🙂

I sometimes will sprinkle some roasted sesame over it, and if you prefer your Toppoki to be slightly sweet, just feel free to add a teaspoon of sugar in it, this will neutralize the spiciness.

As for product wise, I love this instant pack, the sauce is very tasty, even before I add in any other ingredients, and of course the more ingredients the merrier. You can also opt to make this a purely vegetarian dish, just take out the pork, and perhaps you can also add in some mushrooms in it too. 🙂

If you are buying just the plain rice cake and not instant ones, you can use this Korean spicy sauce for the rice cake as well. 🙂

As for the rice cakes itself, you can find in the frozen section of supermarkets too. In past I have used the rice cake to cook some Shanghainese inspired dishes rice cakes dishes, and it turned out nice too, a little different as it is soya sauce and oyster sauce base. Unleash your creativity and play around with the ingredients, this dish is great too with chicken or seafood. 🙂

QUICK AND SIMPLE RECIPES – KOREAN RICE CAKE RECIPES OR KOREAN TOPPOKI RECIPES

PRODUCT REVIEWS – INSTANT KOREAN RICE CAKE PACK FROM SHINE KOREAN SUPERMARKET

Happy Cooking!

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Cheers,

Dawn