Tteokguk

A clear soup in which the rice cake ovals go in for the last three minutes and no longer.

Beef, Fish, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish.

Ingredients

• 400 g garaetteok, as on its own page, in 3 mm ovals
• 200 g beef brisket or skirt
• 1.2 litres anchovy and kelp stock, as on its own page
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 eggs
• 3 spring onions, sliced thin
• 1 sheet gim, toasted and crumbled
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. THE RICE CAKES GO IN FOR THE LAST THREE MINUTES AND NO LONGER. They are already cooked; all they need is heating through until they turn from chalky white to glossy and soft. Left in while the soup simmers they dissolve from the outside, which does two things at once -- the ovals turn to mush and the starch they shed clouds a broth whose whole point is that it is clear. Three minutes, then serve.
2. SO THEY ARE SOAKED SEPARATELY BEFOREHAND, not in the pot. Twenty minutes in warm water if they are fridge-hard or frozen, as the garaetteok page says. Soaking them in the broth to soften them is the same mistake by another route.
3. THE BROTH IS SKIMMED AND NOT BOILED HARD. A bare simmer and the grey foam lifted off as it rises. This is a clear soup, so everything that clouds it -- hard boiling, pressing the solids, late stirring -- is avoided on purpose.
4. THE BEEF IS SLICED AFTER IT HAS COOKED AND COOLED A LITTLE. Hot, it shreds; cooled for five minutes it slices cleanly across the grain into thin pieces that look like something rather than like threads.
5. THE EGG GOES IN AS RIBBONS, poured in a thin stream round the edge of the pan while it is barely moving, then left ten seconds before stirring. Poured into a boiling pot it breaks into crumbs and clouds everything.
6. Beef simmered in the stock with the garlic 40 minutes until tender, the surface skimmed as foam rises.
7. The beef lifted out, rested 5 minutes, and sliced thinly across the grain. Returned to the pot.
8. Garaetteok cut into 3 mm ovals on a steep diagonal. If not freshly made, SOAKED in warm water 20 minutes and drained.
9. The soy sauce and sesame oil stirred into the broth, and it is tasted and salted now.
10. Brought back to a bare simmer -- not a boil.
11. THE RICE CAKES ADDED and cooked 3 MINUTES, until they float and have turned glossy and soft.
12. The eggs beaten and poured in a thin stream round the edge of the pan. Left 10 seconds, then stirred once.
13. Taken off the heat at once.
14. Ladled into bowls, spring onions and crumbled gim scattered over, and plenty of black pepper.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes