282 recipes. Page 5 of 12
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The radish is half-cooked on its own beforehand, so it is seasoned all the way through in the short time the mackerel takes. With just half a tablespoon of gochujang, the soy sauce leads and the heat stays gentle.
Think of a pan of dakgalbi with udon added. Gochujang-marinated chicken thigh, cabbage and thin slices of sweet potato cook first, and the thick udon then takes on a heavy coat of that sauce.
Squid scored on the inside, blanched briefly, and plunged into ice water stays chewy without turning rubbery. Half-moon cucumber slices add crisp juiciness, and shredded red cabbage brings a purple contrast. The chojang dressing, gochujang (Korean chili paste) thinned with vinegar and maesil-cheong, a green plum syrup, is spicy, sweet, and sour all at once, giving the mild squid a strong accent. Served cold, it makes a light meal on hot summer days when appetite is low.
Godeulppaegi is one of the more bitter Korean greens, and most of the prep time goes into soaking it in cold water after blanching. If a taste says it's still too sharp, change the water and soak it again, then dress it with gochujang and vinegar.
Ssukgat (crown daisy greens) goes in just long enough to wilt, so its bitter, herbal edge comes through clearly against the rich gochujang pork. The pork shoulder is seared in a smoking-hot pan for some browned flavor.
With 700 g of pork neck cooked in one go, there is enough for four people to wrap in lettuce. Gochugaru goes in alongside the gochujang, adding a drier, more powdery heat on top of the paste's.
Modeled on convenience-store cup tteokbokki, this one adds mala sauce to the gochujang for a tingle on the tongue. Chili flakes raise the heat, and more mala sauce raises the numbness. Brands of mala sauce vary a lot in saltiness, though, so start with a single tablespoon.
Chicken thighs go into a gochujang marinade, ideally overnight. On the day, the skin side is pressed into the pan first to render the fat, then the pieces are flipped and covered so the thick meat cooks through. The glaze only turns glossy at the very end, in the last 2 minutes over high heat with the lid off.
This is just the broth for mulhoe, Korean raw fish in an icy, spicy soup, made on its own ahead of time. Six tablespoons of vinegar and some plum syrup go into the gochujang base, and the 100ml of soda is stirred in last and slowly so the fizz survives. It can rest in the fridge for a day, then move to the freezer an hour or two before serving to turn slushy.
Pork shoulder is marinated in gochujang, stir-fried with onion and simmered in rice-rinsing water for ten minutes before the deodeok and oyster mushrooms go in, because the root's aroma fades the longer it boils. Leftovers thicken overnight; add a splash of water or rice water when reheating.
Fermented skate carries a sharp ammonia sting, and steaming it under a gochugaru and gochujang paste tames that edge without erasing it. In Jeolla Province the dish turns up at feasts and ancestral rites, and the smell is the point rather than a flaw.
Deodeok, a bittersweet mountain root sometimes called bonnet bellflower, gets pounded with a rolling pin and torn into shreds before it joins chewy jjolmyeon noodles. Tearing instead of slicing keeps its fibrous grain, so it brings a slightly woody chew and an herbal fragrance to the sweet-sour gochujang dressing. Cabbage, carrot, and cucumber are soaked in cold water for crunch, and everything is tossed together only right before eating so the vegetables stay crisp.
Blanched squid tossed in gochujang, chili flakes and vinegar works as both a drinking snack and a side dish with rice. Timing decides almost everything: past a minute to a minute and a half in boiling water the flesh contracts and turns rubbery, while undercooked squid stays translucent in the middle. An ice bath right after stops the carryover heat and locks in the springy bite.
A mixed seaweed pack usually holds several kinds, such as sea mustard stems, hijiki, and ogonori, and each one chews a little differently. The seaweed spends only 20 seconds in boiling water to keep that springy bite. A vinegared gochujang dressing and thin slices of cucumber add tang and crunch.
The freshwater fish disappears entirely, its flesh dissolved into a spicy gochujang and doenjang broth thick with both rice and thin somyeon noodles. Perilla seed powder and perilla leaves are strong enough that the muddy taste river fish can have barely registers. Fine bones can survive even several strainings, so eat slowly.
Maesil-cheong (green plum syrup) in the marinade gives this gochujang pork neck an unusually tart finish. Perilla leaves, barely cooked, are mixed through the meat.
Octopus turns rubbery quickly under heat, so both the blanch and the grilling are kept short. A slice of ginger in the blanching water tames the fishy smell, and the glaze of gochujang, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, and sesame oil goes on in thin layers as the skewers cook.
Pear juice makes up close to half of the marinade for these gochujang pork ribs. It is what makes them tender, and it is also why they scorch so easily. The ribs marinate for an hour or two, cook over medium heat, and get the leftover sauce brushed on only at the very end.
A curled tentacle and a white surface do not prove the thickest part of the octopus is cooked. Instead of a fixed time, this recipe relies on a thermometer and keeps the pot going until the center has held at 75°C or more for over a minute.
The tough, bark-like base of each dureup (aralia shoot) is trimmed off, and thick stems are split lengthwise or scored with a cross at the bottom. That way three or four minutes in the pot cooks them through while they stay crisp. Gochujang goes in at a third of the amount of doenjang, just enough for a low heat.
On drying racks in Gangwon-do, pollock freezes and thaws dozens of times over the winter to become hwangtae, and the flesh ends up full of sponge-like pores. Braised in soy sauce with gochujang, it takes the salty-sweet seasoning in through those pores, all the way to the middle rather than just on the surface.
Two separately cooked toppings make this bowl of dressed noodles: pan-seared tofu and stir-fried ripe kimchi. Pressing the tofu dry before it meets a hot pan gives it a golden crust and a soft center, a mild counterweight to the gochujang dressing. Brief frying takes the sharp sourness off well-fermented kimchi and pushes its savory side forward. The noodles end up spicy, sweet and tangy without turning harsh.
The earthy smell of early-spring naengi (shepherd's purse) gives this squid salad with chojang, a sweet-sour chili dressing, its seasonal character. The greens are cleaned of roots and grit, then dipped only briefly in salted boiling water to soften their bitterness while keeping their aroma.
Braised dried pollock comes out soft and moist; this version tosses the dry shreds straight into a gochujang, vinegar, and oligosaccharide syrup dressing and keeps them chewy. With no stove involved, it takes about 15 minutes when a side dish is needed in a hurry.