Kim Ji-soo joined The Korea Times in 2006, and worked on such desks as culture and politics and is currently a member of the Editorial Board. Previous workplaces include The Korea Herald and the Korea JoongAng Daily.
Try traditional dish of 'tteokguk'
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Shows the “joraengi rice-cake soup” done by Han Yoon-ju, head of the restaurant Congdu. / Courtesy of Congdu
By Kim Ji-soo
New Year rice-cake soup brings good fortune, unity
Koreans are always split over whether they should make more of the Western or Lunar New Year, but if the duration of the respective public holidays are any indication to go by the latter wins out. What Koreans never argue over is that a bowl of “tteokguk” is a must on New Year’s Day; as are turnip cakes and sweet rice cakes for the Chinese and ozoni or hot soup with mochi cake for the Japanese.
“The long rice cake means desiring for innocence and grace throughout the year. Slicing them up into coin-size pieces is wishing for good fortune in money,” said Han Bok-ryo, head of the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine, who is Important Intangible Cultural Property 38. She added that eating rice-cake soup simultaneously in the New Year is to express unity of the people.
The institute offered its recipes for the staple foods of Korean “Seollal.” These are sourced from the courts of generations past, unique to historic Seoul.
The beauty of this tteokguk is that one can also taste the “sanjeok” or thin slice of grilled Korean beef and the soup in one bowl. Usually the sanjeok is eaten separately.
The basic ingredients are 1 kilogram of round rice cakes, 400 grams of beef brisket, 100 grams of rump, one large green onion, one egg, three manna lichen, soy sauce, cooking oil, a red pepper, salt and pepper, mushrooms and about 20 cups of water (This is for four people). The brisket is used to make a sauce while the rump will be marinated to make the “sanjeok” along with the onion.
The image of the rice-cake soup prepared by Han Bok-ryo, head of the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine. / Courtesy of the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine
First the brisket is boiled in water to make a soup while the rice cakes are washed in cold water. The rump should be sliced into 0.5x0.7x4 centimeter pieces and marinated in two small spoons of soy sauce, a small spoon of sugar, minced green onion, sesame oil, minced garlic and a bit of pepper. The large green onion should be cut into pieces of the same size. Put the beef and green onion on a skewer and then fry. The white of an egg should be separated to make a yellow or white topping, the mushrooms should be dipped in hot water and then cut up and the red pepper cut thinly to use as toppings.
Pour soy sauce into the brisket-based soup and add the rice cakes, salt and pepper.
When the rice cakes become soft, pour the tteokguk into a bowl and place the sanjeokthe egg strips and the other ingredients on top.
Han Yoon-ju, CEO of Congdu F&C, offered her take on the rice cake soup.
Han is the owner of the restaurant of the same name. She suggested “joraengi” or “cocoon-shaped” rice-cake soup done in the Gaeseong, North Korean style. The cocoon-shape also speaks of good fortune.
“The tip here is to make the soup clear and shred the slightly-burned laver onto the rice-cake soup,” said Han.
The cocoon-shaped rice cakes can be bought at a local shop. Han uses shank, brisket to make the soup.
To make a three to five-person portion, she advises using 100 grams of shank, 200 grams of brisket, 3 liters of water, 100 milliliters of Korean soy sauce, a little bit of salt and one large green onion. First put the meat in the water to boil. When it boils enough to form a forth, skim this off and put in the soy sauce and the green onion.
Take out the meat when it starts boiling again. The meat will later be marinated and used as a topping for the rice-cake soup. When preparing the rice cakes, use a bag of joraengi rice cakes. Marinate the boiled shank and brisket with garlic, pepper, red pepper, laver, string red pepper, sesame and sesame oil. Han said that the egg-strip toppings can be optional here. She prefers her joraengi tteokguk without them.
This recipe is pretty simple in that once the joraengi rice cakes are thrown into the boiled soup, one only needs to add the marinated beef, laver and red pepper toppings. For those interested in how this tastes, a Korean restaurant Congdu, located near Deoksu Palace in central Seoul, has it on its menu.