Thai Green Curry Tteokbokki with Korean banchan.

Posted by Tammy

On the second day of my tteokbokki marathon, I decided I’d make you a recipe for Thai Green Curry Tteokbokki.

The Thai green curry sauce recipe here is slightly modified from one posted online by the BBC.

Remember with all tteokbokki recipes, you start by soaking your garae tteok (가래떡), which are the fat cylindrical rice noodles traditionally used in tteokbokki, in a hot-water bath — not boiling water — for about 10 minutes. Check the instructions on the package of tteok you bought at the Korean grocery store for recommendations on this step.

Thai Green Curry paste ingredients

While the tteok are soaking, start making your Thai green curry paste. Since I work from home, I made the paste during my lunch break and kept it in the fridge for a few hours.

4-6 medium green chillies, de-seeded and roughly chopped
2 shallots, roughly chopped
2 tsp ginger juice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
small bunch of fresh cilantro, stalks and roots attached if possible
2 lemongrass stalks, chopped (if unavailable, use 2 tbsp dried)
2 limes, grated zest and juice
1 tbsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
2 tsp fish sauce or light soy sauce
3 tbsp olive oil

1. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz to a paste. Use straight away or store in a jar in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. This quantity is enough for a curry for 8 people.

One quick tip about putting the paste ingredients into the food processor or blender. The lighter items, like the liquids and spices go in first, the heavier items (like the chopped peppers and shallots) should go in last for optimum puree action.

After I got off work, I grabbed the green curry paste and started on part two of this recipe.

3 tbsp Thai green curry paste
1 lb tteok noodles (soaked for an hour in warm/hot water)
2 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tbsp grapeseed oil

Saute the green curry paste in oil over medium heat until fragrant, reduce the heat, gradually add 2 1/2 cups of the coconut milk a little at a time, stir until a film of green oil surfaces.

Add the fish sauce and palm sugar and let it heat until they are dissolved. Then add the tteok and continue to cook on medium high heat for about 5-10 minutes or until the tteok are soft and the broth has reduced and thickened slightly.

Serve with your favorite Korean side dishes (banchan). Mine includes Kimchi, Fried Seaweed Stems (미역줄기 볶음), Korean Spinach Side Dish (시금치 나물) and Mung Bean Sprout Side-dish (숙주 나물).