Korean Rice Cake (Garaetteok) vs. Recipe Tutorial 가래떡 Prepared 3-Way

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Garaetteok 가래떡 is a variety of tteok made by pounding steamed short grain rice flour. It is used in many Korean dishes like spicy tteokbokki and tteokguk, the traditional New Year’s dish. By itself, it just tastes like rice but the chewy texture makes it fun to eat.
WATCH HOW TO MAKE Garaetteok 가래떡 (Korean Rice Cake)
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups of short grain rice which will yield about 2 ½ cups of rice flour
½ tsp of salt
6 tbsp of boiling water
Sesame oil
Directions:
Wash the rice until the water is clear. Soak the rice in clean water overnight.
Strain the rice, it should have expanded to about 2 ½ cups. The rice should be well-strained, but not dry.
Finely grind the rice in a food processor or coffee grinder. You may have to work in batches and repeat grind a few times. It should be fine enough to pass through a sifter.
Combine the rice flour and salt. Add boiling water a little bit at a time and combine. You should end up with the consistency of damp sand that will hold when you pack together. I used 6 tbsps of boiling water, you may need more or less depending on how damp your rice flour was at start.
Pack the rice cake dough and add to parchment lined steamer. Steam on high for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, the cake may look lumpy or crumbly, but don’t worry.
6. Spread sesame oil on your work surface to prevent sticking. Remove the dough from the steamer and pound the cake on your work surface while it’s still hot. As you pound, you’re breaking down the rice particles even more for the gluten to fully develop and get sticky. You can mash and roll the cake onto itself with a rolling pin (as I did) or use a kitchen mallet or pestle and beat the crap out of it. In the end, the lumpy/crumbly rice cake will be smooth and elastic.
7. When the rice cake is cool enough to handle, portion out into 8 pieces.
8. Working with one portion at the time, knead until soft. Once soft and malleable, start rolling it into ½” diameter cylinders to form the garaetteok. Repeat with remaining pieces.
9. Cool the garaetteok to room temperature before you slice for tteokbokki or tteokguk.
10. Rice cake for tteokbokki - Slice the garaetteok into 3” logs. Rice cake for tteokguk - Slice diagonally into thin discs. Leftover rice cake - Roll into marbles. Use immediately or freeze.
Quick snack using leftover tteok marbles: Pan-fry in a little bit of oil until golden brown. Drizzle on a bit of honey. Enjoy!
Notes:
It will take time for the steamed rice cake to get to the smooth and elastic texture so save this task for an arm/shoulder day and skip the gym. If you have a bread machine, use the pizza dough setting to break down the steamed rice cake, it will take about 25 minutes.
You can buy frozen rice flour from a Korean supermarket called maepssalgaru 맵쌀가루. To use, put it in the refrigerator overnight until it has thawed. Please note that the flour used in this recipe is not the same as sweet rice flour or other rice flour sold at room temperature.
The flour you make may have more or less moisture than the flour I used. You may need to add more or less boiling water. Add 1 tbsp at a time and combine until you have the damp sand consistency/texture.
Garaetteok 가래떡 is a variety of tteok made by pounding steamed short grain rice flour. It is used in many Korean dishes like spicy tteokbokki and tteokguk, the traditional New Year’s dish. By itself, it just tastes like rice but the chewy texture makes it fun to eat.
1 ½ cups of short grain rice which will yield about 2 ½ cups of rice flour
½ tsp of salt
6 tbsp of boiling water
Sesame oil
Directions:
Wash the rice until the water is clear. Soak the rice in clean water overnight.
Strain the rice, it should have expanded to about 2 ½ cups. The rice should be well-strained, but not dry.
Finely grind the rice in a food processor or coffee grinder. You may have to work in batches and repeat grind a few times. It should be fine enough to pass through a sifter.
Combine the rice flour and salt. Add boiling water a little bit at a time and combine. You should end up with the consistency of damp sand that will hold when you pack together. I used 6 tbsps of boiling water, you may need more or less depending on how damp your rice flour was at start.
Pack the rice cake dough and add to parchment lined steamer. Steam on high for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, the cake may look lumpy or crumbly, but don’t worry.
6. Spread sesame oil on your work surface to prevent sticking. Remove the dough from the steamer and pound the cake on your work surface while it’s still hot. As you pound, you’re breaking down the rice particles even more for the gluten to fully develop and get sticky. You can mash and roll the cake onto itself with a rolling pin (as I did) or use a kitchen mallet or pestle and beat the crap out of it. In the end, the lumpy/crumbly rice cake will be smooth and elastic.
7. When the rice cake is cool enough to handle, portion out into 8 pieces.
8. Working with one portion at the time, knead until soft. Once soft and malleable, start rolling it into ½” diameter cylinders to form the garaetteok. Repeat with remaining pieces.
9. Cool the garaetteok to room temperature before you slice for tteokbokki or tteokguk.
10. Rice cake for tteokbokki - Slice the garaetteok into 3” logs. Rice cake for tteokguk - Slice diagonally into thin discs. Leftover rice cake - Roll into marbles. Use immediately or freeze.
Quick snack using leftover tteok marbles: Pan-fry in a little bit of oil until golden brown. Drizzle on a bit of honey. Enjoy!
Notes:
It will take time for the steamed rice cake to get to the smooth and elastic texture so save this task for an arm/shoulder day and skip the gym. If you have a bread machine, use the pizza dough setting to break down the steamed rice cake, it will take about 25 minutes.
You can buy frozen rice flour from a Korean supermarket called maepssalgaru 맵쌀가루. To use, put it in the refrigerator overnight until it has thawed. Please note that the flour used in this recipe is not the same as sweet rice flour or other rice flour sold at room temperature.
The flour you make may have more or less moisture than the flour I used. You may need to add more or less boiling water. Add 1 tbsp at a time and combine until you have the damp sand consistency/texture.