In the midst of the busy days in December, I got a free lamb shoulder. I wanted to get the most flavor with minimal effort, so I made a pot of lamb stew with lots of garlic, carrot, bay leaf, peppercorns, stock, and a half bottle of Syrah - sear the meat all around first, then gently simmer with everything for 4 hours until the meat is completely tender.
...is how i was going to end it, but then, right about when the meat was falling apart, I thought how gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) would add the last 2% to the dish for me. It's an easy Korean fix, I know, but what can I say... I put a big spoonful of gochujang, with some of the lamb meat, sweet potatoes and water and reduced it until the sweet potatoes were cooked and lamb meat absorbed the gochujang liquid.
Needless to say, lamb-gochujang stew, a glass of Syrah and I got along very well that night.
| DID YOU KNOW? | ||
| Tannic Stew? | ||
| According to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, cooking red wine brings out the astringency of the tannins. However, tannins also bind with the proteins in ingredients, such as meat and concentrated stock, before binding with the proteins in our mouth. This leaves us to enjoy the deeper, fuller taste of stew that is reduced with otherwise tannic red wine. He also gives a similar example of the binding of tea tannins and milk protein. |
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KOREAN WORDS |
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| lamb | 양 | (yang) | ||
| meat | 고기 | (go gi) | ||
| garlic | 마늘 | (ma neul) | ||
