Simple Baking: Homemade Korean rice cake

Fun to make, quick and easy.

The recipe requested for short grain rice, the kind of rice that you use to make sushi. Apparently it is quite difficult to buy them. I was lucky that my local Korean grocery lady helped and got me some from her rice cake supplier :)

Of course, we can always homemade rice powder. You can make lots of it at one go and freeze them for months. Here is the method.

Recipe: Maangchi.com
Ingredients
2 cups short grain rice flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup boiling water if using microwave, 1 cup boiling water if using a steamer ( you may need more, or less depending on how much moisture in your short grain rice flour)
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Methods
1. If you bought frozen rice flour from the Korean grocery store, keep in the fridge to thaw them. If you are making your own rice flour, you can omit it.

Making rice cake with microwave
1. Combine rice flour, salt and boiling water in a bowl. Mix well.
2. Cover it with a plastic wrap, leave a small gap to let the steam release. Microwave for 2 minutes.
3. Give it a good mix using a rice scoop or wooden spoon.
4. Cover again and cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Spread 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil on your cutting board. Pound the rice cake with a pestle about 5 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic.

Making rice cake with steamer:
1. Combine the rice flour, salt and boiling water in a bowl.
2. Line a steamer with parchment paper. Add the rice cake dough and steam about 25 minutes over high heat.
3. Now, follow 3. 4. 5. method for microwave above to complete the procedure.

To prepare rice cake for ddeokbokki:
1. Cut into 8 equal pieces, roll each to a 4inch long cyclinder shaped rice cake.
2. Rub hands with sesame oil, gently coat them all to keep them from sticking to each other as well as for the aroma.

To prepare rice cake for ddeokguk (rice cake soup)
1. Cut into 2 equal pieces, roll each to 10 inch long cyclinder shaped rice cake.
2. Let cool in room temperature for several hours, slice diagonally into thin discs.
3. Use right away, or keep in plastic bag, freeze for later use. This amount is for 1 serving of ddeokguk, for two bowls of soup, you need two batches of this.