Questions on Japanese ingredients

[Hiroyuki]

you soak the rice cakes in water until pliable.  I am assuming for about an hour or until they get soft.  Be careful, because they can get "over soaked".  If this happens, you will see cracks in them or they will not have a chewy consistency when you cook them.

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I've never had Korean mochi before. I'm curious to know if this is necessary when you make a nabe (one-pot dish).

[SheenaGreena]

you soak the rice cakes in water until pliable.  I am assuming for about an hour or until they get soft.  Be careful, because they can get "over soaked".  If this happens, you will see cracks in them or they will not have a chewy consistency when you cook them.

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I've never had Korean mochi before. I'm curious to know if this is necessary when you make a nabe (one-pot dish).

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yep, you still have to pre-soak even before you boil them and add them to soup. I have no clue if they are the same texture or consistency as japanese mochi. I have only had sweet mochi with red bean paste and I am sure that is completely different than mochi used in savoury applications, am I right, hiroyuki?

[peony]

thanks a lot, SheenaGreena, for your timely advice, or I will most likely over-soak the rice sticks !

The Chinese have some types of dried rice sticks too, (look almost the same) and I have to soak these Chinese types over-night ! They are called ' nian kao ' - some sort of new year cake in the dried form.

[Hiroyuki]

I have only had sweet mochi with red bean paste and I am sure that is completely different than mochi used in savoury applications, am I right, hiroyuki?

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Thanks for your reply, and yes definitely. Sweet mochi remains soft due to the addition of sugar, which retains moisture.

I think Korean mochi is hard to come by in my rural area, but I'll look around the next time I go shopping.

[SheenaGreena]

thanks a lot, SheenaGreena, for your timely advice, or I will most likely over-soak the rice sticks !

The Chinese have some types of dried rice sticks too, (look almost the same) and I have to soak these Chinese types over-night ! They are called ' nian kao ' - some sort of new year cake in the dried form.

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I think the chinese ones are the same as the korean ones. Korean people use the rice cakes (in oval form) for a new years soup dish. If you soak them overnight, then maybe you should soak the korean ones overnight. I gave you the oversoaking advice because it happened to me when I soaked slices/ovals of rice cake, not the sticks. When I oversoaked them they had cracks throughout the ovals and were really mushy when I cooked them. Again, I am pretty sure the chinese ones are the same as korean ones, so do what you have already been doing. Let me know how you are going to cook them!

[SheenaGreena]

I have only had sweet mochi with red bean paste and I am sure that is completely different than mochi used in savoury applications, am I right, hiroyuki?

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Thanks for your reply, and yes definitely. Sweet mochi remains soft due to the addition of sugar, which retains moisture.

I think Korean mochi is hard to come by in my rural area, but I'll look around the next time I go shopping.

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if you can't find it, you should ask torakris. I think she has actually made tteok bok gi before using korean rice cakes. Hopefully I didn't imagine that and it really happened

[Domestic Goddess]

Here's another recipe for tteokbokgi that is not spicy. It is called soy sauce tteokbokgi.

Ingredients:

soaked tteokbokgi

1 tbsp oil

1/2 white onion sliced

2-3 shitake mushrooms, sliced

5 vienna sausages or hotdogs, sliced diagonally (you can substitute cooked pork or beef strips)

1 leek, cleaned and sliced into strips

1-2 tbsp garlic

2 tbsp. soy sauce

3-4 tbsp cooking syrup or pancake syrup.

Put oil in the pan, turn the heat up to medium and the tteokbokgi and stir-fry for a minute. Add the onions, leeks, sausages and garlic and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the syrup and soy sauce and stir-fry until the ingredients are covered with the sauce evenly. Serve hot as a snack.

[peony]

Here's another recipe for tteokbokgi that is not spicy. It is called soy sauce tteokbokgi.

Ingredients:

soaked tteokbokgi

1 tbsp oil

1/2 white onion sliced

2-3 shitake mushrooms, sliced

5 vienna sausages or hotdogs, sliced diagonally (you can substitute cooked pork or beef strips)

1 leek, cleaned and sliced into strips

1-2 tbsp garlic

2 tbsp. soy sauce

3-4 tbsp cooking syrup or pancake syrup.

Put oil in the pan, turn the heat up to medium and the tteokbokgi and stir-fry for a minute. Add the onions, leeks, sausages and garlic and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the syrup and soy sauce and stir-fry until the ingredients are covered with the sauce evenly. Serve hot as a snack.

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this is the most likely recipe I wld try as it resembles more towards chinese cooking.

I would replace hotdogs with minced or thinly sliced meat.

add extra veggi, like cabbage or bok choy.

pancake syrup ? not likely to add in, replace with hoisin/charsiew sauce

thanks Domestic Goddess. so how long shd I soak the dried rice sticks ?

[Domestic Goddess]

Peony - I forgot the thinly sliced cabbage! I knew there was an ingredient missing in my recipe. I wouldn't know how long to soak the dried rice stick because I always use the fresh ones. Some of the fresh ones I have been using come hot/warm straight from the mochi producer. I would suggest soaking them for about an hour and see how it goes from there. Hope this helps.

[SheenaGreena]

dg and I both suggested an hour, however I have seen on korean websites that they soak them overnight so I am a bit perplexed. If you are in a hurry and don't have 12 + hours I would just soak them for an hour, like we said. If you have more time, then soak them overnight.

add whatever veggies you want really. I have seen them served with bok choy all the time, plus I love the crunch it provides. If you want to be really authentic, you can eat the rice cake with toothpicks instead of chopsticks

[GTO]

Now that we know what tey are, please let us know how they turn out when you cook with them, peony - What they're like textually etc...

[Hiroyuki]

Learning new things everyday!

Today I have learned that:

1. The dish SheenaGreena and DG referred to is called toppogi or toppoki (トッポギ or トッポキ) in Japanese. This dish has become popluar even in Japan since the TV drama called "Fuyu no Sonata" (don't know the original title) became a big hit in Japan. (I didn't watch the drama.)

2. Korean rice cake is made from nonglutinous, ordinary rice, not glutinous rice.

3. The Japanese seem not to know the proper way of using Korean rice cake. All the recipes for toppogi that I found simply say to put the rice cake sticks in the pot or wash them with water before putting in the pot.

[smallworld]

The Japanese seem not to know the proper way of using Korean rice cake.  All the recipes for toppogi that I found simply say to put the rice cake sticks in the pot or wash them with water before putting in the pot.

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That's what I did a few years ago- just put them straight into the nabe. They were quite hard and chewy, and less sticky than Japanese mochi. I liked them, but now I'm wondering if I did it wrong! Or maybe the kind sold in Japan isn't dried? I don't remember the package saying anything about rehydrating them (but then again I don't always read the packages carefully).

[SheenaGreena]

Learning new things everyday!

Today I have learned that:

1.  The dish SheenaGreena and DG referred to is called toppogi or toppoki (トッポギ or トッポキ) in Japanese.  This dish has become popluar even in Japan since the TV drama called "Fuyu no Sonata" (don't know the original title) became a big hit in Japan.  (I didn't watch the drama.)

2.  Korean rice cake is made from nonglutinous, ordinary rice, not glutinous rice.

3.  The Japanese seem not to know the proper way of using Korean rice cake.  All the recipes for toppogi that I found simply say to put the rice cake sticks in the pot or wash them with water before putting in the pot.

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I think the show you are referring to is "winter sonata" which is an awesome korean drama. The man who directs that drama has done dramas for different seasons. I believe the autumn and the winter ones are the most popular.

Is korean ddeok really made from nonglutious rice? I never would've guessed this, as I thought all korean rice cakes were made from glutionous rice.

oh and who cares if the japanese don't know the proper way to cook korean rice cake , its a very versatile ingredient. Japanese food is very popular in korea and I'm sure the korean way to cook most japanese ingredients is incorrect.

(sorry if that sounded rude)

eta: I should've clicked on hiroyuki's link. The link you provided is for winter sonata. Have you seen "jewel in the palace" or "My lovely sam soon?" these are really good food oriented korean dramas

Edited November 11, 2006 by SheenaGreena (log)

[peony]

this is how I cook the tteokbokgi / toppogi... the Chinese way

I soak 3 hours before they become pliable...

they are soft and chewy, I find this a very nice texture. However, if you want them to be a bit firmer, maybe just soak for 2 - 2½ hours.

They do softer a bit more while frying in the wok.

I think these are made from glutinous rice because of the chewy texture.

[peony]

Here's the instructions at the back of the wrapper.

anyone can translate into English ? thanks...

[JasonTrue]

It occurred to me that a thinner version of koyadoufu was served to me in China when I went to dinner at a sort of fire pot restaurant.

It was just rehydrated before being brought to the table, and we cooked it in the soup for a bit before eating.

[JasonTrue]

The instructions only indicate about 10 minutes of soaking for your ddeok bok gi is required, and then additional water is added to dish while cooking. The instructions are otherwise similar to what Sheena Greena suggests.

[SuzySushi]

Here's the instructions at the back of the wrapper.

anyone can translate into English ? thanks...

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Eeek!!! You know when I first saw these pictures (when the thread was scrolling and I couldn't read the text), I thought they represented the front and back of a T-shirt!!! Well, why not???

[Hiroyuki]

They don't provide an ingredients label?

If you find the word うるち米, it means nonglutinous, ordinary rice.

If もち米 or 餅米, it means glutinous rice.

I can see two mistakes from the photos upthread:

1. They use the term "toppokki" (トッポッキ) to mean Korean mochi.

2. Ten minutes of dipping in water!?

I found one important note:

Don't deep-fry them in oil.

(Do they explode if deep-fried?)

[peony]

Hiroyuki, you are so humorous,

they def. need more than 10 mins dip in water.

they have a chewy n v slight sticky texture, plain rice sticks taste springy or have a soft texture - to me, that is.

I think because of the sticky texture, so can't deep fry these. If I had cook these in a non-stick wok, they would have stuck to the pan.

[prasantrin]

Is there a type of flour in Japan that would correlate to White Lily flour in the US?

It's a soft wheat flour that's low in protein and gluten. Their website says per 30g of flour, there's about 3g of protein.

[Priscilla]

I just got Harumi Kurihara's two English-language books. In them she occasionally calls for "Chinese soup paste," described as a mixture of pork and chicken bases.

Is this a Japanese product or Chinese? Are there brands that are better than others?

She seems to use it in small amounts as a seasoning as well as for actual soup broth, which put me in mind of Mexican cooks' adding a touch of granulated chicken base where one might not expect.

Also: Shoshoku, which she says is Chinese rice wine... is this the same thing as Shao Hsing?

Any info would be greatly appreciated; I am intrigued by several of her recipes already.

(edited due to hasty button-pushing)

Edited August 11, 2008 by Priscilla (log)

[nakji]

I just got Harumi Kurihara's two English-language books. In them she occasionally calls for "Chinese soup paste," described as a mixture of pork and chicken bases.

Is this a Japanese product or Chinese? Are there brands that are better than others?

She seems to use it in small amounts as a seasoning as well as for actual soup broth, which put me in mind of Mexican cooks' adding a touch of granulated chicken base where one might not expect.

Also: Shoshoku, which she says is Chinese rice wine... is this the same thing as Shao Hsing?

Any info would be greatly appreciated; I am intrigued by several of her recipes already.

(edited due to hasty button-pushing)

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I love her books! Try the sesame chicken salad - it's grand. The broth that forms in the microwave is incredible. I've also made her somen salad to great acclaim. I can't help with the chinese soup paste, as I can't recall making a recipe that called for it, but the wine is, as far as I know, Shao Hsing. I use it interchangeably with sake, depending on whatever I've got in the cupboard. Although I only recently found out that the supermarket sells cooking-grade sake. Until that, I'd been using Hakkasan.

I have a large tub of Knorr chicken base in my kitchen as well. Vietnamese cooking uses it a lot, and I find it useful for adding flavour, as a kind of MSG substitute. There's probably no reason why you couldn't do the same until you get it sorted. I wouldn't let anything get in my way of making some of her recipes!

[Priscilla]

Thank you, Erin... shao hsing I always have, as well as sake, God knows.

It was your commendation of one of Harumi's books that got me to take a look at them, in fact. Her advance press, at least in the U.S. depicted her inaccurately as overly simplifying or diluting Japanese cooking, when in fact she is quite hard-nosed and trad, which is just how I like it.

Interesting how cuisines as geographically separate as Vietnamese and Mexican use that Knorr chicken base similarly... I have also known a German very good home cook who used it in that way, as well as her beloved Maggi sauce, which some Asian home cooking does as well, I believe.