Sotteok is a South Korean street snack made from skewered rice cakes and hot dogs. It's flavoursome, often glazed with spicy sauce and drizzled with ketchup and mustard, making it sweet, tangy, and spicy.
The outer part of the grilled rice cake is crispy, whereas the inside is soft and chewy. The sausages, on the other hand, give off a juicy, slightly salty, and smoky flavour. This gastronomical delight once again proves South Korea to be a heaven for tasty street foods.
Here's our quick recipe to make this trendy Korean snack in the comfort of your home.
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What Is Sotteok?
"Sotteok" is actually a portmanteau of "so" from "sausage" and "tteok" from "garaetteok' (rice cake). Having said that, this Korean street food dish consists of rice cakes and sausages on a skewer.
As they are skewered in an alternating pattern, Koreans came up with a cute name for it; "So-tteok So-tteok". However, they are also known as tteokbokki hot dogs and sausage tteokbokki skewers.
Sotteok sotteok ingredients
Here are the ingredients you'll need for our sotteok recipe.
- tteokbokki
- Cocktail sausages
For the sotteok sauce:
- Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
- Honey
- Ketchup
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Honey mustard sauce (optional)
For our recipe, you want to get garaetteok, a cylinder-style Tteokbokki or Korean rice cakes. These will give you a great, balanced bite between the juicy sausage. We don't recommend using sliced rice cakes, as these don't skewer as well. If you can't find Korean rice cakes, you can use Chinese ones that are used for hot pots instead. However, these are slightly tougher and not as chewy, but taste-wise, they are very close.
Japanese cocktail sausages are juicier than typical sausages. If you can’t find these, you can also use veggie, beef or chicken sausages to contrast the rice cakes and spicy sauce. Make sure that you cut the sausages to the same size of your rice cakes so they will grill evenly.
Cooking Tips
- Since tteokbokki cakes are sticky, the sauce can easily adhere to them. However, this is not the case for the sausages. Therefore, you can make tiny cuts in them so the sauce will stick better.
- Use a pan wide enough for the skewers to lay flat on while grilling the sotteok. You can also trim your skewer if it is too long.
- The tteokbokki and sausages should be grilled on medium heat. To determine whether your tteokbokki is perfectly grilled, the outside should be crispy yet soft and bounce back when pressed.
- If your tteokbokki and sausages are frozen, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes to soften them beforehand.
Sotteok (So-tteok So-tteok) | Tteokbokki Hot Dog Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 pcs tteokbokki
- 12 pcs cocktail sausages
- 2 tablespoon gochujang korean red pepper paste
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoon ketchup
- ½ tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil for frying
- honey mustard sauce optional
Equipment
Cooking Instructions
- Add your rice cakes and sausages to a pot and pour boiled water over them. Close the lid and let it soak for 10 minutes.
- Skewer rice cakes and sausages alternatingly. The recommended amount is 4 rice cakes and 4 sausages on each skewer.
- Heat oil in a pan. Then, fry the skewered rice cake and sausages until golden.
- In a bowl, mix the gochujang, honey, and ketchup for the sotteok sauce. Brush it over the skewers.
- You can also put some honey mustard and more ketchup on top. Then, sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and serve your sotteok.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Calories have been calculated using an online calculator. Nutritional information offered on Honest Food Talks is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimate.
Tteokbokki Hack – Make It Using Rice Paper
So you're craving for so-tteok so-tteok but can't find rice cakes at your local supermarkets? No worries, you can make tteokbokki out of rice papers! 4 sheets of rice paper can make one long rice cake. Square rice papers would be the best option but round rice papers would work as well.
Making tteokbokki out of rice papers is honestly way easier than you think. Here's how:
- Dip rice papers in warm water and lay them flat on a plate/cutting board. Make sure to overlap them on top of one another instead of stacking them.
- Wait until the rice papers get soggy and start rolling them bit by bit into a cylinder. Then, cut it into three pieces.
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you get the desired amount of 'tteokbokki'!
Once all of these are done, you can proceed with the usual steps of making sotteok.
Who Invented Sotteok Sotteok?
Sotteok (tteokbokki hot dog) was apparently an invention of a Korean comedian, Lee YeongJa. She introduced it in one of her TV shows and since then, it became South Korea's iconic street food.
Calories
A serving of sotteok contains about 300 calories. It is not usually considered unhealthy but it does contain lots of carbs and fats. However, those with health and fitness goals can still enjoy this delicious snack in moderation.
What To Enjoy With?
The tteokbokki hot dog is usually enjoyed with a spicy gochujang sauce, but you can totally make it non-spicy too. There is really no harm in glazing it with your personal favourite sauce too. If you prefer a sweet and tangy flavour for your so-tteok so-tteok, honey mustard would be perfect for it.
We recommend going for both spicy and honey mustard sauces as they are an amazing combination for street food. Also, be sure to get a bite out of both the rice cake and sausage for the full experience.
How did your homemade sotteok turn out? Share with us a photo of your street food masterpiece by tagging us on Instagram @honestfoodtalks. We would love to see your delicious tteokbokki hot dog skewers.
Your Korean street food experience would not be complete if you only had one snack. Complete your at-home experience by preparing another tasty street snack recipe: Korean fried corn dog.
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