Tteokbokki, But Make It Bacon, Egg and CHEESE 🤯 with Esther Choi | K 스트리트 푸t드 | Cooking with Choi

0:04 Mmm When I think of Korean street food, one thing comes to mind.

0:13 It's Tteokbokki.

0:14 That's really good.

0:15 Tteokbokki is your quintessential Korean street food.

0:18 It's rice cake.

0:20 Super chewy, spicy, sweet.

0:21 It just reminds me of being in the streets of Korea.

0:25 Today I'm making my version of Tteokbokki at home.

0:35 Okay, I'm making Tteokbokki Tteokbokki is a rice

0:39 cake dish simmered in a spicy sweet gochujang sauce.

0:43 It's like the most iconic Korean street food you can think of.

0:48 And I love this version that I came up with.

0:51 It's based on bacon, egg, and cheese and my love for bacon, egg, and cheese.

0:55 And when I think of like New York, to me, like this is my New York street food.

1:01 I'm also making potato gimmari.

1:02 The perfect vehicle to dip in that beautiful sauce.

1:08 I'll grab my fish cakes, some scallions, cheese, and this dish is not fussy.

1:15 It's supposed to come together really, really fast.

1:19 First thing, our bacon.

1:20 I already chopped our bacon.

1:22 We're just going to cook that and get it really crispy.

1:25 We're going to let that render.

1:27 And while that's going, just going to chop some garlic.

1:32 Tteokbokki to me reminds me of my childhood in Korea.

1:37 I went to school in Korea when I was in elementary school.

1:42 So, third grade to about sixth grade.

1:45 And my days in Korea as a child was

1:48 like all I can remember is like the street food.

1:51 I think this is how I learned to eat spicy food.

1:54 In Korea, you start early with the spice.

1:57 And now I don't think Tteokbokki is spicy at all.

2:00 Like at all.

2:01 Your tolerance grows.

2:02 Whenever I crave it, I just put it together at home.

2:05 It takes less than 20 minutes to make.

2:07 This for a midnight snack for me is...

2:10 it's like always a treat.

2:12 I really want the bacon to get crispy.

2:16 I'd say bacon is kind of non-traditional in Tteokbokki.

2:19 I just think that bacon makes everything better.

2:22 I love bacon.

2:23 Just want to make sure all my other ingredients are ready.

2:27 I'm using American cheese.

2:28 So, I like the way it melts into the sauce.

2:33 Oh, sorry.

2:34 No, no, no.

2:34 You're fine.

2:35 Go ahead.

2:35 Oh my god.

2:36 You know, everyone yells at me about

2:37 that saying like the I always leave it down.

2:41 Yeah.

2:41 My husband hates it.

2:43 It's like his weird pet peeve.

2:46 Only if he knew how many I have of his.

2:49 Just kidding.

2:50 [laughter] Fish cakes.

2:51 It's kind of like paper, right?

2:54 Fish cake is basically like, think hot dog but with fish.

2:58 It's like fish that's ground up with some vegetables

3:03 and seasoning and then it's compressed and then sliced.

3:06 Pretty much it to explain the flavor of fishcake.

3:10 It's like a umami bomb.

3:11 So so so delicious.

3:13 I'm just going to cut it into like little triangles.

3:17 And I'm doing this because this is how it is in the streets of Korea.

3:20 This is how they kind of slice it.

3:21 So that's how I'm going to do it.

3:23 Basically, by the time this is all crisped up, I want all my prep to be done.

3:28 So cabbage.

3:28 I have some scallions.

3:30 Just cut into 2 in pieces.

3:34 Scallion is done.

3:35 And now my rice cakes.

3:36 We're just going to give it a quick rinse.

3:43 Okay, great.

3:44 My bacon looks very crispy.

3:46 We're going to kill the heat.

3:49 So, the bacon is coming out because we want to reserve that crispy texture.

3:56 This bacon fat delicious.

3:58 We're keeping it.

3:59 I'm going to add our minced garlic.

4:01 Oh my god, it smells so good.

4:04 our rice cakes.

4:06 About four to five cups of water.

4:09 Straight into the pot.

4:12 Crank the heat.

4:14 And then to this we're going to add all the sauce ingredients.

4:19 We have these are the best thing ever.

4:24 These are little stock tablets.

4:27 Sometimes when you're making Tteokbokki or any type of broth,

4:32 you're making dashi.

4:33 Dashi is like a beautiful fish stock usually.

4:36 This one is an anchovy stock and it's the most

4:39 kind of classic Korean broth that you will find,

4:42 but this coin actually packs all the flavor.

4:46 It's like a concentrated form of dashi in a little tablet.

4:50 You could totally use fish stock or chicken stock.

4:53 Okay, we're going to add some gochujang.

4:56 Gochujang is what makes Tteokbokki Tteokbokki.

4:58 This is the Korean chili paste, the fermented chili paste.

5:02 Mirin.

5:02 Mirin is a sweet cooking wine and some soy sauce, a bit of fish sauce.

5:08 And I feel like this gives it a nice umami kick.

5:12 And this is what makes it so good.

5:15 Sugar.

5:15 Remember this is street food.

5:17 You need that like sweet salty hit.

5:20 So this is the sweetness.

5:23 Mmm smells like the streets of Korea.

5:27 Okay.

5:28 Okay, so we're going to simmer this for about 5 to 10 minutes.

5:32 I want to start reducing it slightly.

5:34 I want the rice cakes to start absorbing some of that broth.

5:38 And of course, feel like this is a little optional.

5:42 I love adding extra spice.

5:44 So, I'm going to add gochugaru.

5:46 And this is fine gochugaru, which is more powdery,

5:49 so it kind of melts into the sauce.

5:51 It's like this vibrant red color.

5:53 It's kind of optional.

5:54 Like, if you don't like it too spicy, you don't have to add it.

5:58 I might add more.

5:59 So, I'm going to just leave it.

6:01 Leave it over there.

6:03 I see the sauce kind of getting a little thick, but not too thick.

6:08 There's It's still pretty brothy.

6:10 And at this point, I'm going to add my fish cakes cause I want

6:13 the fish cakes to bloat and kind of absorb some of the sauce as well.

6:17 Let's get our cabbage.

6:18 I'm using green cabbage and not nappa.

6:21 I like the texture of the green cabbage.

6:23 It's like crunchy.

6:24 On the street, you won't find the green cabbage in Tteokbokki.

6:27 This is when you make it at home.

6:29 I'm going to give it a taste.

6:31 Grab a spoon.

6:33 I want to taste just the broth just to make sure that I got the seasoning right.

6:41 Wow.

6:41 Wow.

6:41 I'm so impressed with myself sometimes.

6:44 Got the seasoning just right.

6:46 Just the way I like it.

6:48 Spicy.

6:48 It's a little sweet, but not too sweet.

6:51 It's like so umami.

6:52 So, remember I said it's bacon, egg, and cheese Tteokbokki.

6:56 Boiled eggs was probably one of my favorite toppings on Tteokbokki.

7:01 I always used to take the yolk and kind of crush it into the sauce.

7:05 And as a kid, that was my favorite part.

7:07 I don't like to soft boil it.

7:09 I want it like fully cooked because that's how I ate it as a kid.

7:13 My eggs.

7:14 They're ready.

7:15 Add the scallions.

7:16 Scallions go in at the tail end of the cooking

7:19 because you want to preserve the green of the scallions,

7:22 but you still want to like cook it slightly, not eat it so raw.

7:27 Safe to say we're going to add our cheese, American cheese.

7:33 I think I'm going to add like four slices here for this amount.

7:39 So, the cheese is kind of like your bacon, egg, and cheese part.

7:43 And I love the way the cheese melts into the sauce.

7:47 I'm going to add a little mozzarella, too, for that cheese pull.

7:50 I'm just going to kind of give it a one more mix.

7:55 Let's kill the heat cause it's ready.

7:57 I mean, it looks cheesy.

7:59 It looks gooey.

8:00 How amazing that looks.

8:02 And then remember the bacon, the crispy bacon that goes on top.

8:09 Amazing.

8:09 And then the hard-boiled eggs.

8:11 I bet you never had the poi like this, you guys.

8:14 I'm sorry, but like, do you see this?

8:17 It looks freaking amazing.

8:19 Wow.

8:19 I did it again.

8:22 All right.

8:23 My gosh, look at this.

8:25 It is insane.

8:27 The eggs.

8:28 See all the rice cakes here?

8:30 The Tteok.

8:32 Yeah.

8:33 You know, I got to take a bite.

8:38 I can't wait anymore.

8:40 Very hot, but it's okay.

8:43 Yeah.

8:47 That is so hot, but so good.

8:49 I'm going to get a piece of bacon.

8:52 The egg.

8:53 Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.

8:55 The cheese kind of melted into the sauce and became one.

8:59 Kind of like this cheesy, spicy, sweet goodness.

9:02 And you see how the cheese is kind of dripping off.

9:07 Heavenly.

9:08 When I make Tteokbokki, there's one thing that I think of, and that's gimmari.

9:13 It's noodles wrapped in seaweed and then deep fried.

9:16 But we're going to do something kind of fun.

9:18 We're going to wrap hash browns with seaweed and then deep fry them.

9:23 So fun.

9:24 I mean, bacon, egg, and cheese, hash browns.

9:27 You know how it goes.

9:29 So, let's make it.

9:31 Now, this comes together really quick.

9:34 We have our gim, our seaweed sheets.

9:37 So, we're just going to fold it in half.

9:40 And then once more.

9:43 Fold it one more time.

9:45 So, we get these nice little sheets.

9:48 Let's open our frozen hash browns.

9:50 They're thawed out and super soft.

9:53 Take pile of your hash brown.

9:55 Put it right in the middle.

9:57 Roll it up.

9:58 Right.

9:58 That's easy enough.

9:59 Super easy.

10:00 We're just going to repeat this.

10:01 When I thought of this, I was like, "So genius.

10:04 Now I can eat kimui anytime I want." Gimmari

10:06 is a little bit of a hassle to make, so I never really make it at home.

10:11 But after I figured out this method, I was like,

10:13 "Okay, now I can do it every time." That looks good.

10:17 Now, let's make our tempura batter.

10:21 And if you don't have tempura batter,

10:23 totally use flour and cornstarch, maybe like 2:1 ratio.

10:27 But I always have some sort of fry batter on hand because it's just easy.

10:31 You just put it in, add some water, and that's it.

10:34 And I add ice to the water because you want to add really,

10:37 really cold water for frying because it

10:40 just keeps it really light and very crisp.

10:44 You want it pretty loose.

10:46 That way you get a really crispy fry when you dip your finger in.

10:52 Should run off.

10:53 That is your perfect batter consistency.

10:55 Now we're going to just dunk these in here.

11:00 Going to bring this over to the fryer and just deep fry.

11:03 That's it.

11:04 My temp is at 350, but also you can just do a little test.

11:08 Drop a little bit of the batter in the oil and if it floats really fast,

11:12 you know your oil is ready.

11:14 So, I'm just dropping these guys slightly battered straight into the fryer.

11:18 And there's nothing that you're like really cooking through here.

11:22 So, it's a really quick fry.

11:24 Literally 2 to 3 minutes.

11:25 They're floating up so beautifully.

11:27 Okay, last one.

11:29 Once they're floating, holding its shape, just going to take them out.

11:35 So, we're going to double fry them.

11:37 And this ensures that it stays like really crispy.

11:39 Fried food should never be soggy.

11:42 Ever, ever, ever.

11:43 Let it sit for like 1 minute and then we're

11:46 going to do it one more time and then that's it.

11:49 Also, what's great about it is, let's say you want to make this in advance,

11:53 you just fry it once and then once you're ready to serve,

11:56 you just quickly do the second fry.

11:59 When the bubbles start subsiding a little, I think it's ready.

12:03 But you can also feel it with your chopsticks.

12:05 It feels crispy.

12:08 Oh, isn't that so fun?

12:10 Like you see all the potatoes kind of sticking out.

12:15 Just love that.

12:16 And there's more like crispy edges.

12:17 I mean it's really hot, but it's okay.

12:23 Mmm Ahh that's hot Mmm.

12:29 This is like a textural dream.

12:32 It's like super creamy and soft inside, insanely crispy on the outside,

12:37 and then you get like the umami from the seaweed.

12:40 I'm eat these all day.

12:42 Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy.

12:44 All right, guys.

12:45 This is the way you got to do it.

12:49 Your tempura, just dip, dip, dip.

12:51 That's your sauce.

12:52 Mmm.

13:00 It's so fun.

13:01 Street food is supposed to be fun, you know.

13:03 Have fun with it.

13:04 Tell me what you think.

13:05 Try this bacon egg and cheese Tteokbokki recipe.

13:07 It will blow your mind.

13:08 Leave me a comment.

13:09 Tell me what you think.

13:11 Don't forget to like and subscribe.

13:12 One more bite for me.

13:14 Maybe a lot more bites, actually.

13:17 Until next time.

13:18 Now get out of here so I can eat.