Injeolmi 인절미 (Korean Rice Cakes in Kinako, Matcha & Raspberry)

Food has always been the best way to learn about cultures we may not be familiar with. Yes we can learn the language, watch foreign films, and visit the country but food seems to enlighten a lot of our senses in ways other activities can not. Just take a stroll down Koreatown or Little Tokyo. The different variety of food will leave your senses tingly with curiosity.

It’s truly amazing how popular Korean food has become. I love seeing American restaurants adding their own fare on the beloved bibimbap, dumpling or the Korean fried chicken. But what about the Spicy Tofu stew (Sundubu-jjigae 순두부찌개), Sweet potato noodles (Japchae  잡채), or Soy Milk Noodles (Kongguksu 콩국수)? They seem less popular because it comes off as a bit exotic. But I get it. Who can resist a warm sautéed veggie bowl or spicy glazed drumsticks?

But what I don’t get is how tteok (떡), or rice cakes, haven’t taken off yet. Tteok is 99% sticky rice and the other 1% is sugar and salt. I love rice and I, still to this day, can’t believe I grew up eating a bowl of rice everyday! I try to eat less carbs now and have cut down on my rice consumption. But I do have trouble with my tteok consumption. I remember on my 16th birthday, my mom bought me a rainbow birthday cake made from rice cakes! It was so delicious… but definitely a bit extra 🙂

There’s a handful of ways to make different types of rice cakes. You can steam, pound or pan fry them and serve them either as a sweet or savory snack. This version – which is called injeolmi – is made from pounding the sticky rice. But instead of using our arm muscle, we will grab our electric hand or stand mixer for help. The taste and texture is very similar to mochi, if you’ve ever had that before. But instead of a filling in the middle, kinako or soy bean powder is sprinkled on top. I wrote a post on how you can make your own kinako or you can buy it at your local asian grocery store. 

I also created two (unconventional) flavors: matcha and raspberry. You won’t find these flavors at your local Korean store but they’re just as delicious and sweet!

Try out all or one of the flavors as these rice cakes come together quickly for a delightful snack.

Looking for other Korean rice cake desserts? Check out my Black Sesame Rice Cakes sweetened by dates!

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quick notes

• The process of making rice cakes is very messy as the sweet rice is very sticky! Make sure to soak all utensils and bowls in hot water for a seamless clean up.
• Rice cakes are made specifically from Sweet Rice or Glutinous Rice. Other types of white rice or grain will not work. 
• When dividing the sweet rice batter into thirds, I eyeballed it as the batter is very sticky. Therefore, my advice when adding the kinako, raspberry and matcha powder is to taste as you go.
• When looking for kinako at your local asian grocery store, make sure to purchase roasted soy bean powder and not regular soy bean powder. It should say 볶은 콩 가루, which translate to roasted(볶은) bean(콩) powder(가루). Alternatively, you can purchase it on amazon. 

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KOREAN RICE CAKES

Rice cakes

• 1 cup sweet or glutinous rice
• 1 cup water 
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Neutral tasting oil

Soak 1 cup of rice with 1 ½ cup of water for at least 4 hours. Rinse rice thoroughly and cook in rice cooker with 1 cup of fresh water. Alternatively, cook in a pot by bringing to a boil then lowering heat to low for 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let rice steam with the top on for additional 8-10 minutes.

Flavored powder

• ~½ cup freeze dried raspberries
• ~3-4 tbsp homemade kinako or store bought roasted soy bean powder
• ~2 tbsp Matcha powder

While the rice is cooking, transfer ~½ cup of freeze dried raspberries into a blender or food processor and pulse until finely ground. Place in a bowl and add in 1-2 tbsp of kinako powder and mix. Free feel to add more kinako or raspberry powder.

Transfer remaining 2-4 tbsp kinako and 2 tbsp matcha in two separate bowls and set aside.

After rice is cooked, mix in sugar and salt.

Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer with a dough hook attachment, mix at a medium speed for 2 minutes. Repeat this 5 times while folding the batter in between sets. Alternatively, you can mix and pound the batter with a wooden spoon for 8-10 minutes, occasionally folding the batter. The rice should be mashed into a smooth but sticky batter.

Lightly coat your hands in oil to transfer the batter onto a cutting board. Divide the batter into three with a knife.

With the first third, place either on parchment paper or a small square container, coated in oil and refrigerate. Placing the batter in a square container is optional. The square container allowed me to press and shape the rice cakes into one big square, resulting in straight lines when cutting them into small rectangles. However, rice cakes are usually not perfect rectangles!

Grab the second piece of batter with 1-3 tsp of raspberry powder and mix with stand mixer, electric hand mixer or by hand. Set aside on parchment paper or another small square container, coated in oil and refrigerate.

With the last piece, combine 1-2 tsp of matcha powder and mix with stand mixer, electric hand mixer or by hand. Set aside on parchment paper or another small square container, coated in oil and refrigerate.

The rice cakes should be refrigerated for a 1-2 hours. The longer they are kept in the fridge, the easier it will be to cut into them.

Cut the rice cakes into bite sized pieces and coat plain pieces in kinako, the raspberry flavored pieces in raspberry/kinako, and the matcha flavored pieces in matcha powder.

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p.s. If you like this recipe, click the icons below to share and leave a comment below! Make sure to tag me @girlmeetsradish & #girlmeetsradish so I can see what you are making!