Ingredient Highlight Day: Gochujang!
Plus, recipes for my Gochujang Bolognese and a vegetarian equivalent!
Gochujang! A fermented red chili paste that is essential to Korean cooking. For anyone out there who hasn’t tasted it - I would dare to describe it as equal parts spicy/sticky/sweet/roast-y/toasty-y. It is made of gochugaru chili powder (an ingredient also found in kimchi), glutinous rice flour, fermented soybean powder, and salt. The flavor develops and changes as it sits (usually in clay earthenware pots) for 6-9 months.
Gochujang is as complex as it is rich. It has a distinct way of adding heat and flavor simultaneously and similarly to other umami rich ingredients like miso or tahina, it is inherently unctuous. Though, one thing that makes it so beloved is perhaps the unique sweetness imparted by the glutinous rice itself converting to sugars during the fermentation process.
These days one can find some version of gochujang at most big box supermarkets - Ralphs or Vons even, which says a lot about how all ingredients can go from traditional and localized to ubiquitous eventually. Though gochujang was first documented in 16th century Korean text, so technically speaking all this really tells us is that it took white/western palates a long ass time to figure out what’s good. No surprise there.
The first time I tasted Korean food was in the form of home-cooking and I was 23 years dumb. I say that because I distinctly remember being flabbergasted by the experience. It was Ms. Kim who introduced me. She was one of the first people I met while working in Fashion (yes, I worked in fashion before food, crazy I know), who showed me immense love and compassion at a time when I needed it most. And food. She fed me Korean home-cooking and it felt like pure love.
Lunchtime at Ms. Kim’s factory took place every day no matter the unrealistic expectations set by the fashion world. My introduction included heaps of chilled bean sprouts, various kimchis, myeolchi bokkeum or crunchy/chewy tiny stir friend anchovies, bowls of pickled daikon and radishes, warm barley, usually some chilled marinated meats, and gochujang all spread out along a plastic covered table. I brought fried chicken and beer, but that’s a story for another time.
I loved these lunches more than anything that was going on (or not going on) in my life at the time. I was a broke, peanut butter & jelly, brown bag lunch kind of a girl. A moment of togetherness in the middle of Manhattan, in the middle of my 20’s no less, felt downright life affirming. Korean food has that kind of effect.
Gochujang lends itself easily to marinades of all kinds, soups, stews, glazes, and is a wonderfully potent addition to rice dishes, egg dishes, noodle dishes, AND as proven by the mega viral recipe from Eric Kim, cookies too!
If anyone out there needs a good gochujang introduction in their lives, look to chefs like Eric Kim or the Korean Vegan Joanne Molinaro for recipes and techniques. Another gateway though is to chuck it into your preferred red sauces. That could be a pizza sauce, bbq sauce, a ragu, a shakshuka even. Just get the gochujang in there like you would tomato paste and see what happens. You might find that it will naturally add a layer of heat and flavor that doesn’t scream spice, it just lingers in the mouth in a cool/classy sort of way.
What follows is a recipe for a Gochujang Bolognese (and a cauliflower vegetarian version) with Mascarpone and A Gochujang Drizzle that produces big impact with little effort. I credit the unbeatable flavors of Gochujang with doing much of the heavy lifting. This sauce will feel like it has cooked all day after only about 40 minutes. Let’s face it, if the sun is going down at 4, we are eating by 5:30pm, we can’t afford to waste time here.
The next newsletter will be for paid subscribers only and will include a recipe for
GOCHUJANG TAHINA SALMON!! It will literally knock your socks off - don’t miss out!
The Basic Gist:
Saute veggies, brown meat (or cauliflower), add gochujang, add canned tomatoes and water, cook until pasta is ready, add pasta water, add pasta, stir in mascarpone. The recipes below are written as two separate options for the sake of ease. You’re welcome.
Gochujang Bolognese with Mascarpone
*makes enough for 4-6 people1 lb ground meat (beef, pork, turkey, chicken are all great contenders here)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 white onion finely diced
1 carrot finely diced
1 stalk celery finely diced
2 cloves garlic sliced
optional additional veggies to throw in: fennel, zucchinis, cabbage etc all finely diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
big pinch ground fennel seed
1 can of whole tomatoes squeezed
1 heaping tablespoon gochujang paste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
roughly 1 cup water
Salt and pepper
Pasta of choice but Rigatoni is suggested!
1/4 cup mascarpone Cheese
Gochujang drizzle (1 additional teaspoon of gochujang and a splash of water mixed until totally smooth and combined)
Cilantro to garnish
The very first step is to sprinkle the ground meat with baking soda and let it sit for 15 minutes.
This is an incredibly useful tip for when you are working with ground meat in this way! Baking soda raises the pH, which helps keep the moisture from squeezing its way out of the meat and into the pan. Less moisture in the pan = better browning (aka where the flavor is), and a more tender result once cooked through. Let your kid sprinkle, they live to sprinkle things on things.
During that 15 minute period, dice all your vegetables. (Let your kid peel the garlic for you - I smash the cloves gently and let Loosha have at them. Same goes for onion skins.)
Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and chuck in your diced veggies - keep garlic on the side for now. Season with salt and pepper and sweat them out for 3 minutes then add your garlic and stir to warm it thru.
If a child hasn’t dragged you away from cooking yet, the 15 minutes of meat sitting is over and now meat goes into the pan. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, break it up into clumps as it gets cooking. Season this with salt and pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes or until it’s halfway to done.
Make some room in the bottom of the pan and add gochujang, tomato paste, and fennel seeds. Allow these pastes to warm through for a minute before you stir them into the rest of the ingredients.
At this point the bottom of your pan is developing some crusty brown spots - this is a good thing (as Martha would say). It’s called FOND aka the tasty bits that caramelize and brown while cooking. To reap it’s benefit you need a liquid or wet ingredient to help loosen it from the bottom of the pan.
Add canned tomatoes and water (use the empty can here, swirl it around, and add about 1 cups worth of tomato-y water to the sauce) and use your wooden spoon to scrape and coax all the fond from the pan into your sauce. It should be bubbling away at this point on medium low. Season with salt and pepper and stir occasionally for the next 10-15 minutes.
This is the point at which you should get a pot ready for pasta if you haven’t yet. Big pot, salt water. You know the drill.
Once the pasta is 75% cooked add roughly 1 cup of pasta cooking water to your sauce and stir. Drain the pasta and add it directly in and give it a good toss.
Add in the mascarpone cheese and fold it all together while the sauce finishes coalescing into a silky smooth dream angel.
Plate and drizzle with a little of that diluted gochujang, and some fresh cilantro.
Gochujang Cauliflower Bolognese with Mascarpone
*makes enough for 4-6 people
1 small cauliflower cut very small or blitzed in a food processor - you want pieces the size of ground meat for lack of a better description
1 white onion finely diced
1 carrot finely diced
1 stalk celery finely diced
2 cloves garlic sliced
optional additional veggies to throw in: fennel, zucchinis, cabbage etc all finely diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
big pinch ground fennel seed
1 can of whole tomatoes
1 heaping tablespoon gochujang paste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
roughly 1 cup water
splash of soy sauce
Salt and pepper
Pasta of choice but Rigatoni is suggested!
1/4 cup mascarpone Cheese
Gochujang drizzle (1 additional teaspoon of gochujang and a splash of water mixed until totally smooth and combined)
Cilantro to garnish
Heat a large saute pan (a pan with walls, not high walls like a pot - just a little bit of a wall) over medium heat. Add olive oil and chuck in your diced onions, carrots, and celery - keep garlic on the side for now. Sweat them out for 3 minutes then add your cauliflower, season with a good amount of salt, and cook stirring occasionally for 6-8 minutes.
Add your garlic and stir to heat through. Make some room in the bottom of the pan and add gochujang, tomato paste, and fennel seeds. Allow these pastes to warm through for a minute before you stir them into the rest of the ingredients.
At this point the bottom of your pan is developing some crusty brown spots - this is a good thing (as Martha would say). It’s called FOND aka the tasty bits that caramelize and brown while cooking. To reap it’s benefit you need a liquid or wet ingredient to help loosen it from the bottom of the pan.
Add canned tomatoes, soy sauce, and water (use the empty can here, swirl it around, and add about 1 cups worth of tomato-y water to the sauce) and use your wooden spoon to coax all the fond from the pan into your sauce. It should be bubbling away at this point on medium low. Season with salt and pepper and stir occasionally for 15 minutes.
This is the point at which you should get a pot ready for pasta if you haven’t yet. Big pot, salt water. You know the drill.
Once the pasta is 75% cooked add roughly 1 cup of pasta cooking water to your sauce.
Drain the pasta and add it directly to the sauce and give it a good toss. Add in the mascarpone cheese and fold it all together while the sauce finishes coalescing into a silky smooth dream angel.
Plate and drizzle with a little of that diluted gochujang, and some fresh cilantro.
