What happens when spicy tteokbokki -- Korea’s most popular street food -- meets seafood and cheese? It’s elevated to the next level! All the contrasting flavors work so well together to create something incredibly flavorful and comforting.

Use any cheese(s) you would use for pizza or pasta. Mozzarella is great, and I also like the pizza blend (provolone, asiago, mozzarella, etc.) in this dish. You can melt the cheese over the stove top, in the microwave, or under the broiler.



Any combination of seafood can be used. I used shrimp and squid in this recipe. Clams and mussels would be great additions as well. If you don’t like seafood, simply use my traditional tteokbokki recipe and add cheese on top to make cheese tteokbokki.

I used dashima and shrimp shells to make a flavorful broth here. You can simply use water if you want. The additions of seafood and cheese give the dish lots of flavor anyway.



Ingredients:

450 grams tteokbokki tteok

1 dashima piece (about 7-centimeter square)

7 to 8 small shrimp (save shells if peeling)

1/2 small squid

80 grams green cabbage (yangbaechu)

1 scallion

Sauce:

1 tablespoon Korean red chili pepper paste (gochujang)

1-1/2 tablespoons Korean red chili pepper flakes (gochugaru)

1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon corn syrup (or 2/3 tablespoon sugar)

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1/2 to 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese (or pizza blend)



Soak the rice cakes for about 20 minutes if hardened or refrigerated.

Clean the shrimp (saving the shells if peeling) and squid, and cut the squid into small pieces.

Cut the cabbage and scallions into about 2-inch long pieces.

Add 2 cups of water, dashima, and shrimp shells, if available, to a pan. Bring it to a boil, and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Remove the dashima and shrimp shells. Preheat the oven broiler if you want to use it to melt the cheese.

Stir in the sauce ingredients. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the sauce mix. Add the rice cakes. Boil until the rice cakes become very soft and the sauce is thickened, about 8 - 10 minutes. Stir frequently so the rice cakes don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add the cabbage. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, for an additional 2-4 minutes. Taste the sauce, and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Mix in the seafood and scallion, and continue to cook, stirring, until the seafood is almost cooked.

Add the cheese on top. You can melt the cheese over the stove top, covered, or in the microwave, or under the oven broiler.



For more recipes, visit www.koreanbapsang.com.

By Ro Hyo-sun