I spotted a bag of Joraengi Tteok (Korean rice cake) in the shape of twin pearls at my neighborhood K-mart. I just had to buy it because lately I’ve been craving rice cakes of all forms. Traditionally, these Joraengi Tteok is used to make rice cake soup (tteokguk) for New Year. Since there is a photo of stir fry on the packaging as suggested serving, I decided to make stir fry with these cute rice cake pearls.
How could I not be enticed by the form of these pearl rice cakes? Shaped like twin pearls that are attached, it is super adorable and cute. The petite size will shorten cooking time too and is suitable for stir fry. I referenced the ingredients that I need to use for my stir fry dish and adapted my recipe from the Suan Pan Zi dish that I have made several times. But first, mise en place.
I bought a chunk of beef from the morning market the other day for the purpose of general stir fry so I decided to use it for the protein in my stir fry. I also prepared two varieties of mushrooms: shiitake mushroom and wood ear mushroom. Onwards with the recipe!
Joraengi Tteok Korean Pearl Rice Cake Stir-Fry
1 bag joraengi tteok (pearl rice cake)
4 shiitake mushroom, julienned
1 piece wood ear mushroom, julienned
1 cup leek, sliced
300g beef, cut into strips
2 Tbs minced garlic
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs oyster sauce
1 Tbs rice wine
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 tsp black pepper
3 Tbs cooking oil
2 Tbs water
1. Marinate the beef strips with 1 tablespoon each of minced garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine and set aside for a few minutes.
2. Heat cooking oil in a pan.
3. Add leek and 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, stir fry until fragrant.
4. Add marinated beef, mushrooms, rice cake.
5. Stir fry over high heat and season with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon fish sauce.
6. Add 2 tablespoons of water and lower the heat to medium.
7. Cover the pan and let the trapped steam soften the rice cake for 2 minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and mix everything one more time in case the rice cake started to stick to the bottom of pan.
9. Serve immediately with a drizzle of sesame oil and a dusting of black pepper.
I am very happy with how this turned out. I was slightly concerned at first that the pearl rice cake would be undercooked. The cooking time of this stir fry is important and letting the rice cake steam inside the covered pan helped. The rice cake was fully cooked but still retained an aldente bite. No one likes mushy rice cake. I ate my Joraengi Tteok Pearl Rice Cake Stir Fry with a side of kimchi and it was a very satisfying dinner.
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