Garae-tteok is a type of rice cake popular in both South Korea and North Korea. It is small in size and has a signature cylindrical shape. The rice cake dough is made from non-glutinous short grain rice flour, salt and water. The dough is steamed before being rolled and cut into cylinders.
Short grain rice flour gives Garae-tteok the most accurate chewy texture and is easier to work with but it is also quite difficult to find. In this case, the flour can be made with short grain rice using the wet milled flour method.
Garae-tteok does not have much flavor on its own and is seldom eaten by itself. Like pasta, it is used to make many other dishes. Some of these dishes are tteok-bokki ,when the rice cake is cooked in a spicy red sauce, tteok-kkochi or skewered rice cake and tteokguk which is rice cake soup.
Origin & Cultural Significance
Tteok refers to the many types of Korean rice cakes made using a variety of grains like rice and beans. November 11th is known as Korean Rice Cake Day or Garae-tteok Day when the importance of farmers and rice is celebrated.
Korean Garae-tteok Recipe
Ingredients
Wet mill rice flour
- Short grain rice – 2 ½ cups
Garae-tteok
- Wet-milled rice flour – 2 cups
- Cornstarch – 1 tbsp
- Fine salt – 1 tsp
- Boiling water – 2/3 cups
- Sesame oil – ½ tsp
Instructions
Wet Milled Rice Flour
- Rinse the 2.5 cups of short grain rice until the water drains clear.
- In a bowl, cover the rice with water and soak it overnight or for 12 hours.
- Drain the water and allow the rice to air dry for an hour.
- Grind the rice in a food processor until the it turns into fine powder. Scrape the sides of the food processor as needed. This step can take several minutes.
- Divide the rice flour into 2 or 3 portions for ease, and sift each portion into a bowl. Remove any clumps or unground rice grains.
- Sift the flour a second time. If there are too much unground rice grains, put them back into the food processor and grind them again until they are fine.
Garae-tteok
- Combine 2 cups wet milled rice flour, cornstarch, fine salt and 2/3 cups of boiling water into a bowla nd mix well.
- Cover the steamer with baking paper or a clean tea towel and place the rice flour mixture on top.
- Close the lid and steam it for 20 minutes over high heat.
- Cover a cutting board with a silicone baking mat or a few layers of cling wrap to prevent the rice cake sticking to it.
- Place the steamed rice cake dough on the mat and knead using gloved hands as the dough will be quite sticky. Keep in mind the dough will also be hot to the touch.
- Pound the dough with a pestle for 5 minutes to give the rice cake a nice elastic texture.
- Divide the dough evenly into 5 pieces.
- Pour the sesame oil on to your palms and gently rub onto the rice cakes.
- Roll the rice cake into thin logs about ½ inch diameter.
- Cut the the rice cake into 4 inch long pieces (about little finger sized).
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 430Total Fat: 2gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 584mgCarbohydrates: 93gFiber: 2gSugar: 0gProtein: 7g