In Korea, we eat rice cake soup (Dduk Guk) for New Year. In old saying, if you don’t have a bowl of rice cake soup, you won’t get older since you are not properly welcoming the new year. When I was young, I remember I want to grow up fast, so I had 3-4 bowls and hope I will grow faster than other kids. Now, I wish I can skip my bowl and not get any older!
First, you need to get rid of excess blood from your beef. Put in a cold water about 30 mins ~ 1 hour. If necessary, change the water once in a while. This is to get rid of nasty smell of raw beef
Making beef stock is the key! You need to boil the chunk of beef for long hours. The longer the better. I usually do this a day before. I boil the beef chunk for at least 2-3 hours (the bigger the beef is, the longer you need to boil). I add more cold water time to time as the water gets lessen. In this way, you can have a deep and genuine flavor
Add 1 1/2 C of rice cakes for 2 people. I usually put rice cakes in a cold water for 15-20 minutes before boiling it to soften the frozen rice cakes a little bit. Boil it until the rice cakes are soft and clear (read the instruction on the package but usually a couple of minutes)
In a meanwhile, we will make sauce and toppings. First, soy sauce for the shredded beef.
low sodium soy sauce (2T) + Korean red Chili pepper (1t) + minced garlic (1t) + ground black pepper (1/4t) + sesame oil (1t)
Once you made your beef stock, shred your beef and pour the sauce to marinate the beef as a topping
Another important topping is egg! I’d like to separate egg yolk and white to make two different colors of egg toppings. You don’t need to but it just makes the bowl much prettier!
Topping platter
marinated beef - egg white - egg yolk - dried seaweed - chopped scallions (counter clockwise)
Add a 2T of soy sauce and a pinch of salt and pepper into your beef stock. Add all the toppings and serve it hot!
Oh don’t forget Kimchi 🙂 Kimchi and Dduk Guk is a classic combo!
Happy New Year!
새해 복 많이 받으세요
- ** SERVING 2
- 200g beef shank or brisket
- 1½C ~ 2C Rice Cake (Dduk)
- 2 eggs
- 1C chopped scallion
- ⅔C thinly sliced dried sea weed (sushi sea weed)
- *beef marinating sauce*
- 2T soy sauce
- 1t Korean red chili pepper
- 1t minced garlic
- ¼t blakc pepper
- 1t sesame oil
- *beef stock*
- 100g Korean radish
- 3-4 pieces of root vegitable heads such as carrots and Asian leek (optional)
- 2T soy sauce
- 1t minced garlic
- 1C sliced scallions (thumb size)
- pinch of black pepper and salt
- Prepare beef stock (making it a day before is suggested) : After getting rid of excess blood of beef in cold water (above picture), boil the beef, Korean radish and root vegetable heads in a big pot for 3-5 hours to make beef stock. Add water as the water get lessen by boiling long hours.
- Make beef marinating sauce. Mix all the ingredients for sauce
- The next morning, heat up the beef stock and bring it to boil. Take out beef shank, cool the meat down for about 10 mins then shred about ¼ (it can vary depending how much beef you want to put as topping) of the beef shank. Marinate the shredded beef with the sauce.
- Separate egg yolk and white. Make each egg omelette. Cool it for few minutes and slice thinly.
- In the mean time, soak the rice cakes in cold water for 15 to 20 mins. Drain the water and add the rice cakes into the boiling beef stock until soften (3 mins).
- Add soy sauce (2T), minced garlic (1t), sliced scallions and a little bit of black pepper and salt for seasoning.
- Serve rice cake in the deep beef broth with all the toppings!