Happy New Year!
Let's start easy.
Let's start slow.
Let's start simple.
But it doesn't mean boring. It's quite the opposite. Gochujang (고추장), fermented Korean red pepper paste, always keeps things interesting. It has a balanced spicy, salty and sweet taste with savory depth that envelops your taste buds.
While gochujang is often used just as is or added as an ingredient for countless Korean dishes, you can make sauces with it, too. Beef gochujang (약고추장 yak go chu jang) is one of the simplest, tastiest sauces with room for its own variations. It's basically sautéed ground beef mixed with gochujang and a drop of honey. It's so simple, but it will give new light to a hot bowl of rice that you never thought was possible. Sometimes I just stand in the kitchen and take bite after bite with nothing else to go with it. It's one of those little things that perk up your appetite when you have none.
Garlic, ginger, toasted sesame oil and honey - basic staples of Korean kitchen are usually mixed in. Depending on the family, some add onion, Asian pear, nuts, seeds, sugar, even fresh peppers to take the sauce to the next level (of spicier, sweeter, nuttier world).
You can also make the sauce with dried shitake mushrooms (표고 버섯 pyo go beo seot), substituting beef, and make it vegan. Its soft chewy bites and umami-filled flavor also work well with gochujang. Its ingredients and cooking directions are very similar, but different enough that I wrote a separate recipe for this below. Pick one to try, or make both and mix them. You can't go wrong with whichever way you choose.
Use the sauce as a bibimbap sauce, as a side with a hot bowl of rice, as a dip for raw vegetable sticks, fill the middle of radishes with the sauce or anything else you can think of. Oh, and resist the urge to take big spoonfuls by itself.
Beef Gochujang Sauce (약고추장 yakgochujang)
Yields: 1/2 Cup Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup Ground beef
1 teaspoon Soy sauce
1 teaspoon Toasted sesame oil
1 clove Garlic, peeled and grated
1 piece Ginger, size of one garlic clove, peeled and grated
Pinch Black pepper
1/4 cup Korean red pepper paste (고추장 go chu jang)
1 teaspoon Honey (more based on your preference)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Mix ground beef, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, garlic, ginger and black pepper and let it sit for 30 minutes.
2. Turn on heat at low and add seasoned beef on a skillet. While the skillet is getting heated and beef is cooked slowly, break up the beef to small pieces with a wooden spoon.
3. When the beef is just about cooked (no red color), add gochujang and stir to mix thoroughly. Keep it at low heat and cook until desired consistency - the sauce will thicken a bit when it's cooled. Stir often so that the sauce won't burn on the bottom.
4. Add honey, depending on your preference from 1 teaspoon to 1 Tablespoon. Stir to mix. Remove from heat.
5. Cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator.
Mushroom Gochujang Sauce (Vegan)
Yields: 1/2 Cup Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup Warm water (may need more to adjust consistency of the sauce)
2~3 Dried shitake mushrooms (표고 버섯 pyo go beo seot)
1 teaspoon Neutral-tasting oil (such as sunflower seed oil)
1 clove Garlic, peeled and grated
1 piece Ginger, size of one garlic clove, peeled and grated
1/4 cup Korean red pepper paste (고추장 go chu jang)
Pinch Black pepper
1 teaspoon Toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon Soy sauce
1 teaspoon Honey (more based on your preference)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak dried shitake mushrooms in warm water until tender. Squeeze excess water from mushrooms. Reserve the mushroom-soaked water. Julienne mushrooms then cut to small pieces.
2. Drizzle oil on a skillet over low heat and sauté mushrooms, grated garlic, ginger and black pepper until mushroom bits turn golden and slightly dry. Add gochujang and stir to mix thoroughly. If necessary, add a spoonful of mushroom-soaked water and reduce to a desired consistency. Stir often so that the sauce won't burn on the bottom.
4. Add sesame oil, soy sauce and honey, depending on your preference from 1 teaspoon to 1 Tablespoon. Stir to mix. Remove from heat.
5. Cool to room temperature and store in the refrigerator.
RELATED POSTS
KOREAN WORDS
맛 (mat) flavor, taste
감칠맛 (gam chil mat) savory flavor, umami
