Rose Tteokbokki without Fish Cakes

Korea meets Italy in this uber-creamy, smoky, spicy and cheesy Rose Tteokbokki without Fish Cakes recipe.

Rose Tteokbokki starts with the traditional tteokbokki ingredients of rice cakes, gochujang and gochugaru.  

After that, you’ll layer in cream, milk, bacon, smoked sausage, and cheese for a truly unique combination of flavors that’s unlike any Korean dish you’ve had before.

What is Rose Tteokbokki without Fish Cakes

When first hearing the word “rose”, you might think that this is a delicate dish that tastes like flowers.  But there aren’t actually any flowers in this recipe.  Instead, “rosé” describes the color of the sauce.  

By mixing brick red gochujang with milky white cream, you’ll end up with a lighter-colored sauce that’s reminiscent of a rosé wine.

And let me tell you that the final sauce is anything but delicate.  Rose Tteokbokki is an out-of-this-world collision of spicy, creamy, smoky, and cheesy flavors.  This is comfort food at its best.

Is Rose sauce traditional?

Nope, it’s not.

Rose sauces are one of the latest food crazes to hit Korea, and are part of a larger trend of Korean-Western mashups.  

The sauce is most popularly used with this Rose Tteokbokki, but it also finds its way into a variety of pasta dishes, like this Shrimp Rose Pasta.

What makes it different?

It’s a modern Korean and Italian fusion.  Rose Tteokbokki is a combination of Korean and Italian foods, bringing Korean rice cakes, gochujang and gochugaru together with Italian mozzarella, parmesan and heavy cream.

It uses heavy cream & milk.  If you haven’t tried a creamy Korean dish yet, you’re in for a surprise.  Dairy works shockingly well with the spicy and pungent flavors of gochujang and gochugaru.  

No fishcakes.  Most Rose Tteokbokki recipes call for fishcakes, but this recipe leaves them out.  Instead, we’ll focus on bringing smoky flavors to the dish by adding bacon and smoked miniature cocktail sausages.  

Why is this recipe without fish cakes?

While most Rose Tteokbokki recipes call for fish cakes, this recipe leaves them out.  The fishy, spongy cakes are great in tteokbokki, but I find that they clash with all the meat we’ll be adding to this dish.

This recipe really leans on smokiness as a defining taste.  Leaving out the fish cakes lets the smoky, meaty goodness of the bacon and sausages shine through.

How to make Rose Tteokbokki

1. Cook the bacon.  Saute the bacon over medium-high heat in a pan for about 4-6 minutes, until golden.  Once finished, remove the bacon but leave in the fat.
2. Fry the onions, miniature sausages, and garlic.  Add the onions and miniature sausages to the bacon fat and fry for 4-6 minutes.  Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds.
3. Pour in the cream, milk, and dashi.  Pour in the liquids and stir well.
4. Add the gochujang, gochugaru and salt.  Add in the gochujang, gochugaru and salt and stir well.
5. Bring to a boil.  Bring the sauce to a boil.  Turn down the heat to medium and simmer for around five minutes.
6. Add the rice cakes.  Add the rice cakes and simmer for around 3-4 minutes.  Stir often so that the rice cakes don’t stick to the pan.
7. Top with cheese and broil.  Top with both cheeses and then broil in the oven for 2-3 minutes, until the cheese is melted.
8. Garnish with scallions and serve.  Remove from the oven, garnish with scallions, and serve right away.

Ingredients for Rose Tteokbokki

Korean rice cakes (Garaetteok).  Chewy, bouncy rice cakes provide the foundation of this recipe and the vessel for that spicy, creamy, smoky sauce.

Gochujang.  The traditional fermented paste is an essential part of this recipe, providing those unmistakable Korean flavors of sweetness, spiciness, and savoriness.  Gochujang has become popular in the United States, and you’ll likely be able to find it in the Asian section of your local grocery shop. Check out some other recipes that use gochujang like this spicy army stew with spam and cheese or this easy gochujang tuna salad.

Gochugaru.  The ground Korean chili ups the spiciness.  Rose tteokbokki is less spicy than traditional tteokbokki, so we’ll only use two teaspoons.  Want it to be more spicy?  Feel free to add some more in. 

Heavy cream & milk.  The addition of heavy cream and milk are what makes this dish “rose”.  Creaminess brings the dish over the top and will absolutely surprise you if you haven’t tried Korean rose sauce yet.  

Dashi.  Dashi rounds out the sauce with added umami.

Bacon.  To build smokiness, we’ll use bacon and alllll of its fat in this dish.

Miniature smoked cocktail sausages.  For even more smokiness, we’ll add the miniature cocktail sausages.  And fry those in bacon fat for good measure.

Mozzarella & parmesan.  Top the dish with two kinds of cheese.  Low moisture, shredded Mozzarella provides melty stringiness.  And parmesan provides a sharp end to the dish.

What kind of miniature sausages do I need?

This recipe uses “Lil smokies”, which are miniature smoked cocktail sausages that are available in most grocery stores.  You might have had them in pigs-in-the-blanket before.  

This type of sausage works best, since we want our end dish to be super smoky.  But you can substitute any kind of small sausage, or even chopped hot dogs, and it’ll turn out great.

What to serve with Rose Tteokbokki

Since Rose Tteokbokki is so rich, you’ll want to round out your meal with fresh or acidic sides that cut through the creaminess.

Pickles.  A crisp, acidic pickle, like this Quick Pickled Celery, provides much needed freshness between bites of creamy, spicy rice cakes.

Sauteed greens.  Sauteeing some greens like spinach or gai lan and adding toasted sesame oil make this meal healthy.  Kind of.

Beer.  Add crisp, hoppy beer.  An IPA would be a great choice.