Happy New Year ~ 새해 복 많이 받으세요!
Last week was the Lunar New Year or 설날 (Seollal) in Korea. It’s another big holiday like Chuseok where people travel to be with their families and celebrate. Of course there’s different kinds of foods to eat during that time as well. One of the must-eats during Seollal is 떡국 (ddeokguk).
The soup is made with a protein broth (I used beef, but you can use seafood, chicken, etc.) and rice cakes. Other ingredients like green onions, egg, and seaweed are also added. Once again I found a great recipe at Maangchi. I only did some very slight variations to save prep time and it turned out great.
[*Gonna reiterate that this recipe is all Maangchi’s and she gets all the credit. I’m just posting how I used it. 🙂 ]
Ingredients:
– 1 pound of sliced rice cakes (ddeokguk/떡국)
– 7 cups of water
– 1/2 pound of beef, chopped
– 3-4 minced garlic cloves
– 3 green onions, sliced
– 2 eggs
– 1 tbsp fish sauce
– 1 tsp sesame oil
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 1 sheet of kim (seaweed)
– salt
Directions:
– soak the rice cakes in cold water for about 30 minutes
– Boil the water in a large pot on high heat for 12-15 minutes
– Chop up your beef (I bought stew meat from Trader Joe’s). Add the beef and garlic to the pot, lower the heat to medium. Cover and boil for 20-25 minutes.
* I used frozen garlic cubes (again from Trader Joe’s) instead of fresh. It’s a quicker alternative to chopping fresh garlic, and will keep in your freezer for some time.
– I also bought Trader Joe’s Roasted Seaweed Snack, rather than buying a bunch of seaweed that I probably wouldn’t use. Maangchi suggests roasting the seaweed in her recipe, but this is much quicker. Plus it’s a nice snack and only 99 cents.
– Separate the egg yolks and whites, putting them in separate bowls. Add a pinch of salt to each and mix.
– Add oil (canola or vegetable) to a small heated pan. Turn off the heat and put the egg yolks in the pan. Let it cook for about 1 minute. Flip the egg and cook for another minute. Take it out and slice into thin strips.
– Add rice cakes to the boiling soup with fish sauce, salt, and onion. Stir and cover for 7-8 minutes. Add egg whites and cook for 1 minute.
– Add sesame oil and black pepper. Stir and remove from heat.
– Serve into bowls. Garnish with egg strips, crushed seaweed, and any other garnish you want.
Enjoy!
Oh Happy Dae! 