How to Make Tteokguk for Lunar New Year: A Delicious Tteokguk Recipe

Tteokguk is a dish eaten on Lunar New Year. While some people dislike eating it because it symbolizes getting older, the thought of sharing tteokguk while chatting with relatives and family gathered for the holiday brings a smile to one's face.

However, making delicious tteokguk during the Lunar New Year holiday is not as easy as one might think. There are cases where the seasoning is off, or if the rice cakes are not cooked properly, they can become too gummy or hard, requiring careful attention. So, let's look into the details of how to cook tteokguk to make it well.

More diverse ways to cook tteokguk than you might think

Let's first learn the basic way to cook tteokguk. First, prepare 500g of sliced white rice cakes, 1/2 beef leg bone, 300g of beef brisket, and 4 liters of water. After that, you will need A - 1 green onion and half a tablespoon of minced garlic, salt, soup soy sauce, and 100g of beef rump; and B - 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce, half a tablespoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of minced green onion, 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, sesame salt, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 2 eggs, dried seaweed, and a bit of black pepper.

First, simmer the beef leg bone and brisket thoroughly to prepare a clear broth. Rinse the sliced white rice cakes in water and drain them. Season the clear broth with the soup soy sauce and salt from A, add the shredded green onion and garlic, bring to a boil, and then add the rice cakes while stirring well to prevent them from sticking.

Slice or mince the beef rump, season it with B, and sauté it. Once the rice cakes begin to soften, pour in the beaten eggs and turn off the heat. Place the tteokguk in a bowl, top it with the sautéed minced beef rump, and sprinkle a little dried seaweed and black pepper.

By adapting the basic tteokguk method above, you can make various tteokguk variations. Sauté the beef brisket and rump using sesame oil and cooking oil. Season with soup soy sauce and boil the mixture down to make tteokguk without preparing a separate broth.

Unlike the typical beef tteokguk, there is also a way to cook tteokguk without meat. If you make a broth using green onions, kelp, and shiitake mushrooms, you can achieve a deep flavor even without beef broth. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to this.

The flavor of the broth is very important for tteokguk. To make the broth properly, it is good to use a thoroughly simmered beef-bone broth. However, when storing beef-bone tteokguk after cooking, it is better to skim off some of the fat in advance so that the oil does not congeal.

Let's make tteokguk a bit differently

Other ways to cook tteokguk include Maesaengi (seaweed) tteokguk and oyster tteokguk. For Maesaengi tteokguk, after making the broth and adding the rice cakes, add the Maesaengi. For Maesaengi tteokguk, it is good to use a broth made from kelp or anchovies. Oyster tteokguk follows a similar method by adding oysters. After making the broth and adding the rice cakes, add oysters and tofu, boil further, and then season with soup soy sauce, salt, etc. Adding dumplings to tteokguk allows you to enjoy a cleaner, more savory taste.

Leftover rice cakes can also be delicious when grilled or made into tteokbokki. If you mix the leftover beef and seasoning from a memorial service and boil it down well, it makes an excellent rice cake dish. Using various sauces and ingredients, you can create even more unique types of dishes.

[Fam Times = Reporter Hong Seung-beom]