Tteokbokki & Cheese Skewers
I love me some tteokbokki. I make meals out of these Korean rice cakes all the time, but one of the most unique ways I've used them is skewered and grilled. This also happens to be the way I least often cook them, so when an excuse arises for another grilled tteokbokki creation, I'll take it. Such an opportunity presented itself at a cookout in the fall of 2023 that had some heavy Korean influences. One of the best results of that day was being able to add these soy-glazed tteokbokki and cheese skewers to the spicy tteokbokki skewers and sotteok sotteok recipes that just keep the grilled rice cake love coming.
While those past two recipes were fantastic, they both leaned into the spicy, so this time around I wanted to change that up and make something a little sweeter that could find an even broader appeal. So for the glaze, I began with soy sauce and added a couple different sugars. Then for more depth, I employed garlic, sesame oil, and rice vinegar, and I just couldn't help myself from adding a little spicy fermented gochujang in there, which gave the final reduced sauce just a slight touch of heat at the end.
After a couple of recipes where I got "grilling cheese" back in my life, I've been on a kick of using it often. This hard white cheese ,which is commonly found in Latino markets, has similar cooking properties to halloumi, but with a less distinct flavor that makes it well suited for applications like this one where the glaze was going to do the heavy lifting in that department. To prep the cheese for skewering, I cut the brick up into pieces roughly the same length and depth as the tteokbokki.
Prior to skewering the rice cakes, I had to cook them so they would be at their soft and chewy best. It only takes a few minutes of boiling for them to reach their ideal doneness, and I can usually tell they're ready once they're all floating at the top of the pot. I still taste test though, mostly because I can't wait to bite into one whenever I'm cooking them.
I skewered the tteokbokki, alternating them with slabs of cheese and a single piece of scallion too. The only difficulty in this recipe came as more pieces of cheese fell apart on the skewer than I was expecting, but I had some extra on hand, so I was able to make up for those failings. Once all the skewers were done, I brought them out to the grill and began cooking them over medium-high direct heat.
I needed to wait until the cheese browned well before I flipped the skewers so they would release easily from the grates. Once they did and were cooked on the second side, I applied the glaze. Then they got another coat of glaze on the second side and I flipped them one more time for even browning.
One common thing about all of my tteokbokki skewer recipes is that the final product never seems to photograph well. However, they all taste incredible, and if I didn't have this site to share on, looks wouldn't have been a qualm anyway. I didn't need convincing that these were great, but took pleasure when I heard my friend grab one and say, "You gotta try these things, they're insane!" She was definitely seconding my feelings as this might have been my finest tteokbokki work yet, with that pleasing chew of the rice cake being elevated by the salty and squeaky cheese along with the sweetness of the grilled scallion. The glaze dialed up the savory factor a ton, and they had just enough heat to make me happy, but they weren't so hot that they turned anyone away. If you haven't given grilled tteokbokki a try yet, this is definitely a recipe that will turn you on to them.
