Garae-tteok or “가래떡” is a type of Korean rice cake. It’s cylindrical in shape and lots of fun to make and eat alone as a quick snack. It’s also commonly used to make popular Korean dishes like Ddukbokki or Dduk Guk. As with almost anything, rice cakes taste so much better when you make them fresh from scratch. Only once you’ve made them yourself, will you truly appreciate the taste and quality of the ones from the store. However, I don’t usually make it too often since it’s a bit labor-intensive and it’s readily available at all Korean supermarkets. Usually, Koreans would eat this on New Year’s Day. But nowadays, we enjoy it throughout the whole year.
Rice cakes are typically made by steaming dough made of rice flour and kneading it while it’s still warm. Rice flour can either be bought (in small or large packages) from any Korean market or made from scratch at home. In order to make rice flour, you just need some good quality rice (I use Kyong Gi Rice 경기미 Medium Grain Rice).
- Rinse the rice three times and soak it in cold water overnight to get rid of the starch.
- Then the next day, drain the water and lay out the rice to dry.
- Finally, you grind it down into a fine powder using a blender or food processor. There’s your rice flour.
Making Korean rice cakes may seem challenging at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’ll be a piece of rice cake. So let’s get to it!
Rice Flour – either homemade or store-bought
Corn Starch – Helps produce softer & chewier texture for the rice cakes
Salt – to season
Sesame Oil – gives toasty and savory flavor and prevents sticking
Hot water – to make the dough
- You can make the rice cakes by using a steamer (traditional approach) or by using a microwave (quick hack)
- I found, through trial and error, that using a microwave to steam the dough actually produced faster and better results.
- The only drawback of using a microwave is that you can’t control the heat (which means there’s a higher chance of the dough drying out). But, no worries! This process is pretty forgiving.
Easy Garae-tteok (가래떡) – Korean Rice Cake
This Korean cylindrical goodness called Garae-tteok is so soft and chewy. It can be eaten as a snack or used to make other awesome and delicious savory rice cake dishes!
Ingredients
- For Steaming via Microwave
- 1 cup rice flour (makes about 0.5lb/8oz rice cakes)
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup hot water (plus more for after microwaving)
- 1-2 tbsps Sesame oil (plus more for rolling out rice cakes)
Instructions
First, start by boiling a cup of water in a kettle or saucepan (I suggest making extra just in case). While that’s working, go ahead and mix together your rice flour, corn starch and salt in a medium mixing bowl until evenly dispersed throughout.
After water starts to boil, pour 1/2 cup of hot water (little by little) into the dry flour mixture and mix with a spatula until a semi-wet dough is produced. Leave dough in the bottom of the mixing bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap. Poke a fork through the plastic wrap 2-3 times to create holes on the top of the wrap.
Microwave for 1 minute, unwrap and knead the dough with a spatula (checking to see if more hot water is needed to prevent the dough from drying out) Place the wrap back on the same way and microwave for 30 more seconds. Check the dough again and hydrate as needed (you want a nice and slightly sticky dough at this point).
Pour and spread some sesame oil onto a cutting board to prevent the dough from sticking. Pound the dough out with a pestle (folding it each time it flattens out completely) for about 5-7 minutes.
Apply some more sesame oil onto the board and roll out the dough into a nice long cylindrical shape using just your hands. Add some more sesame oil onto the rolled out rice cake.
Cut it however you’d like, plate and enjoy!
Notes
– During the microwaving step, you could always add more water depending on how dry it is. – The longer you pound the dough with the pestle, the softer and chewier the rice cakes.
Please let me know what you think in the comments section below. And don’t forget to tag me on instagram @yang.yummm when you share your finished product!
Thank you! See you next time.
Keto Guidebook
January 5, 2022 at 8:55 pmGreat content! Keep up the good work!
Andrew
January 6, 2022 at 1:44 amAhhhh thank you!