Eat Like A K-Pop Star: Tteokguk Recipes For Lunar New Year

Welcome to this week's 'Eat Like a K-pop Star.' It's the weekly series where we showcase a delicious Korean specialty or something we've seen a K-pop star chowing down on lately and show you how to get or create some food of your own.

This week many East and Central Asian countries are celebrating Lunar New Year. For many Koreans, that means devouring a steaming hot bowl of tteokguk, a rice cake soup traditionally eaten with families on the first day of the new year.

Secret's Song Jieun was one of many Koreans to display her tteokguk on Instagram:

Methods for preparing tteokguk vary slightly between regions, and have throughout history. It's unclear exactly when the tradition started, but references to the dish have been found as far back as the 19th century,

In the past, the soup started with a pheasant stock base. Pheasants (like many kinds of meat) weren't exactly plentiful then, so the soup was a luxury that only made the menu for special occasions. Now, pheasants are of more rare, so most Koreans start the soup with a beef, or occasionally chicken, broth.

Beef broth is available for purchase in most standard supermarkets, but the best tteokguk starts with a homemade broth. Good news: it's super easy to make your own.

Visit Korea has a great recipe for the soup on its site. You simply need to bring about 8 cups of water, about 1/2 lb. - 3/4 lb. of beef brisket, 2 green onions (scallions), and 3-4 garlic cloves to a boil for about 45 minutes. Fans of a little extra heat could add some peppercorns, as well, and a sprinkle of salt also never hurt.

This broth, which should turn into a chalky white, is believed to symbolize a clean, fresh start to the new year.

The next most important ingredient is rice cakes. They come in long, white logs that are then sliced into smaller, coin-like pieces and simmered in the broth. They're relatively cheap and available in any Asian market and many specialty stores, but if you want to go all out and make your own, the wonderful YouTube Korean chef Maangchi has a very informative video. (Even if you don't want to make your own, this video can give you an idea of what to look for in the market when you're shopping for rice cakes, and how to slice them for your soup.)

The shape of these rice cakes is also believed to be symbolic -- the roundness resembles the sun that gives new light to the first day of the year. It's also the shape of a coin, so eating the soup is supposed to bring a year full of good monetary fortune.

Different regions add slightly different toppings to the broth, but most go with some variation of beef brisket cut into bite-size bits, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, and black pepper. Also on top go some chopped green onions, yellow radish, a poached egg covered in salt, and some dried seaweed.

Lucky for the visual cooks out there, Maangchi also has a rice cake soup recipe for us:

What do you think? Let us know if this winds up being one of your favorite Korean dishes, and Happy Lunar New Year!

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