I’ve been having a hard time sleeping lately. The moment my head hits the pillow I start feeling anxious about buying a house, I wonder if enough people are buying tickets to my dumpling workshops (if you’re in LA, come make dumps with me!), and whether or not rice cakes and cheese sauce would be good together.

A lot of my recipes ideas pop into my brain as I’m trying to fall asleep. Then I lay there for another hour going through the practicalities of the dish. Should it be a stovetop mac and cheese situation? Or should it be baked with a crispy panko and gochugaru topping? Which texture of rice cake would be better? Sliced or tubular? Should I buy a block of Velveeta?

To be fair, there are worse things that could keep me up at night…

I discussed the idea with Reuben, and he said it didn’t sound terrible. So that was enough for me to pursue it. I then proposed the idea to my favorite Korean family, The Gregors, and asked if it was offensive in anyway. They told me Koreans love to put cheese on rice cakes! Then Sonia came up with the best name, “Tteok and Cheese”!

Use Quality Cheese!

When I first tested this recipe, I made the grave mistake of using cheap bagged shredded cheese. I have NOTHING against bagged cheese. I have about 3.5 bags of the stuff in my fridge right now. But for making a cheese sauce, the cheap(er) shredded stuff often results in an oddly gritty textured sauce. Most likely due to the fillers or stabilizers in the cheese. It’s not terrible, but we should all strive for the best cheese sauce we can make. Reach for a block of Tillamook, Cabot, or Kerrygold for this recipe.

Once you got your good cheese and located some rice cakes from your local Asian market, you’re only 15 minutes away from this stovetop Tteok and Cheese! I used a mix of sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheesy for the sauce, which makes a super creamy and smooth sauce full of cheese pull potential. It’s an easy sauce that doesn’t require making a roux. If you don’t have rice cakes and just want to make plain old mac and cheese, add a pound of elbow noodles in there and call it dinner! But the addition of rice cakes is a textural dream! If you love chewy foods, of course. It’s so creamy, chewy, and INDULGENT. Tteok and Cheese is about 2 times as filling as regular Mac and Cheese, because the rice cakes are thicc. They have an addictive chewy quality to them, so you might find yourself taking an extra scoop or two and pushing through the pain.

Tteok and Cheese (Cheesy Tteok Bokki)

serves 4-6

materials:

2 lb tubular rice cakes
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups quality sharp cheddar cheese - grated
1/2 cup mozzarella - grated
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Korean red chili flakes - for garnish

steps:

1. Soak rice cakes in hot water for 5 minutes, until softened. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat heavy cream in large saucepan over medium heat. Once simmering, adding cheeses, salt, and black pepper. Stir and cook the cheese sauce for 5 minutes, until smooth and thick. Stir often so the cheese doesn’t burn.

3. Add the rice cakes and stir until the evenly coated in cheese sauce. Serve warm with a sprinkle of Korean red chili flakes.