Korean Rice Cake Soup (떡국 Dduk Guk)
Happy New Year everyone!! Hope you had a wonderful start to 2016 – the year of the monkey!
Year 2015 has been a remarkable year for me. My family moved from Korea back to US, we welcomed Spock as a new member to our family (a Tibetan Spaniel mix rescue) in March, my husband and my daughter both got new jobs, moved my blog to a self-hosted wordpress.org version, entered some contests but won nothing, Spock ran away from me 6 times and we still have him and our family is all healthy so we are so blessed and thankful!
Our new family member Spock!!
Here are also some quick updates about my blog –
I opened up an Amazon store under Store. I thought my readers could benefit from my selection of Korean cooking ingredients and tools that I personally know and want to recommend. I will post more about the store soon. It’s just a start now and have very few items on it now but I hope to grow it a little more. Every time you purchase through my store, I get a small commission and hopefully that will help me buy a bottle of soy sauce or two. 
I just wanted to wish everyone all the best of health and happiness to the New Year. I also wanted to share some quick ideas for a wonderful Tteok Guk Happy New Year party that I will be hosting tomorrow.
- Tteok Guk – choose from my low calorie Tteok Guk recipe using anchovy broth, or traditional Tteok Guk recipe using beef broth
- Jeons – Hobak(zucchini) Jeon, Gochu(green chili pepper) Jeon – I will be using my Wanja jeon recipe for the stuffing and stuff half cut green chili peppers, Fish Jeon – no recipe yet on my blog but very easy, just buy cod or pollock fillet, cut it into thin bite size fillets, salt, pepper, coat with flour and coat in egg batter and fry! I chose gochu jeon instead of regular wanja jeon to add some spiciness and freshness to the meal.
- Bugeo Gui – Pan seared Korean dried pollock will be a great addition
- Bok choi geotjeori – Will be using a modified dressing from my Lettuce Salad with probably a little less soy sauce, finely chopped onions, more vinegar.
- Kimchi
- Myulchi Bokkeum – always a great addition to any Korean meal
So from above, I can prepare the following the day before (today) and help me have a less crazy day tomorrow-
- Make jeons ahead and reheat tomorrow
- I think I will go with the traditional beef broth for tteok guk so make beef broth ahead
- marinate pollock for bugeo gui tomorrow
- myulchi bokkeum
And that will be it!! Hopefully I can take some pictures and share with you!
But remember since every one has probably had a lot of heavy, high calorie meals in the last week or so, I would try to keep things light with a touch of spicy and freshness and it will be a wonderful Korean New Year’s breakfast, lunch or dinner!!
Happy New Year again! 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (Saehae Bok Maani Badeu saeyeo)!!
XOXO
JinJoo
PS – if you want to do more, you can also make some JapChae or Three color Namul.
The post Tteok Guk for a Happy New Year!! appeared first on Kimchimari.