I made ssukinjeolmi yesterday afternoon with the ssuk (mugwort) that I foraged from Inwood Park in Manhattan.
Early spring is the best time to forage for ssuk because that’s when it’s still soft. It’s getting a little late to forage it now, but I was lucky that my regular ssuk foraging spot in Inwood Park still had some nice mugwort for me.
I used a lot of ssuk when making this rice cake, because I wanted the taste and texture to be just like a real Korean countryside housewife’s ssukinjeolmi. It turned out better than great! Hello, everybody, please congratulate me! : )
I took photos for you just in case you want to make it like I did. Forage some clean, soft ssuk in your area. Blanch it first and grind it with a food processor. Then mix it with sweet rice flour (aka glutinous rice flour) and cook it in the microwave oven.Then follow the rest of the process in my my injeolmi recipe and you’ll have ssukinjeolmi.
Pounding is a key making chewy rice cake! It’s hard work: kong kong kong!
But you’ll be much more satisfied with the results when you eat it later.
After the kong kong kong, fold it over with a wooden spoon or rice scoop.
umm~ I always keep delicious nutty roasted soybean powder on hand in my freezer! Spread on your cutting board.
“Okie, I’m coming!”
“Don’t worry, you won’t stick to the board, because I’m helping you!”
Cut it with wooden spatula.
Yup yup, stretch it!
Dip it in roasted soybean powder and then sprinkle it with a little sugar! Delicious!
I had a lot of this rice cake for dinner, and it tasted just like healthy, fresh springtime!
What if you don’t have a microwave?
Ssuk makes everything better! I put Ssuk powder in every dduk I make, to the point other people don’t appreciate anymore! Your Ssuk injulmi looks like the kind I love, using fresh and fragrant ssuk from the mountains. I can almost smell those yummy dduk!!!
yeah I froze some ssuk (mugwort) and make soup or rice cake whenever I feel like. Do you freeze your ssuk, too?
Congrats on making a fabulous ssukjinjeolmi, Maangchi! This reminds me of my grandma. She used to make stuff like this back when she was alive. I haven’t had any homemade rice cakes since. I don’t really like dduk that much (other than in ddukbokki and dddukgook), but these look great!
If we have a chance to meet each other someday, I’m sure we will probably keep talking about food. Cheers! : )