Using the Korean "mother sauces"

[infernooo]

Hi everyone!

After reading through the Korean Kitchen essentials and Korean home cooking threads, I went out and bought a whole stack of Korean foodstuffs including:

gochujang - the chili bean paste

dwenjang/toenjang/twenjang/tenjang - bean paste

???jang - black bean paste

I already have sesame seeds and oil...

Could someone please suggest some Korean recipes I can use these pastes/sauces in? I don't mind if it is simple like a dipping sauce or a soup or a main dish or a stew/braise or a stirfry... anything you've got that is tried and tested :-).

Thanks!

[Peter Green]

An easy one is just take some gochujang and mix with some vinegar (and maybe a little sesame oil), and use this for dipping blanched squid, cuttlefish, or vegetables (my favourite's a little bundle of blanched spring onion).

Once Yoonhi wakes up I can check the ratios.

[SheenaGreena]

An easy one is just take some gochujang and mix with some vinegar (and maybe a little sesame oil), and use this for dipping blanched squid, cuttlefish, or vegetables (my favourite's a little bundle of blanched spring onion).

Once Yoonhi wakes up I can check the ratios.

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very well said. I also said this somewhere in another post...but growing up chojang (gochujang + vinegar + some other ingredients) was way too spicy for me to dip my boiled squid tentacles in so my mom gave my sister and I some ketchup instead of chojang. The colors were the same and worked really well.

basically dwanejang can be used dwanejang chigaes and also as a flavouring agent in water to boil some bork belly in (good for making bossam). Gochujang is used in pretty much everything and jajang is only used in jajangmyun or used as a dipping sauce for thickly sliced onions (plus vinegar) and takuan

eta: this is not traditional at all, but I substitute dwanejang, and gochujang for ingredients used in japanese and chinese cooking

Edited June 7, 2007 by SheenaGreena (log)

[mizducky]

eta:  this is not traditional at all, but I substitute dwanejang, and gochujang for ingredients used in japanese and chinese cooking

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Cool! I've been using gochujang and toban jian interchangeably for years now, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

[SheenaGreena]

eta:  this is not traditional at all, but I substitute dwanejang, and gochujang for ingredients used in japanese and chinese cooking

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Cool! I've been using gochujang and toban jian interchangeably for years now, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

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what's toban jian? I can't remember if its dwanejang of jajang?

I use gochujang and dwaenjang in my own rendition of mapo tofu, so that is a good example of using korean ingredients in chinese cooking.

[SheenaGreena]

I just wanted to say that even though I said earlier that you can use korean "mother sauces" in chinese and japanese cusine...now that I come to think about it I can't think of a way to incorporate them into japanese cusine.

even though dwanejang and miso paste have been compared to each other, I find that it's almost impossible to substitute one for the other. However I can substitute chonggukjang for natto in dishes like stews. I also can't find an equivalent for gochujang in japanese cuisine. Despite the similarity between korean and japanese food... both are very different.

[Peter Green]

Yoonhi says she usually does half-half. It depends on your taste. Find the right consistency for yourself.

I asked her about what else to add, and she immediately said "garlic" followed by "and the usual stuff". Again, find the taste you like.

[mizducky]

eta:  this is not traditional at all, but I substitute dwanejang, and gochujang for ingredients used in japanese and chinese cooking

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Cool! I've been using gochujang and toban jian interchangeably for years now, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one.

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what's toban jian? I can't remember if its dwanejang of jajang?

I use gochujang and dwaenjang in my own rendition of mapo tofu, so that is a good example of using korean ingredients in chinese cooking.

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Toban jian is (at least one transliteration into English of) the Chinese version of chile-bean sauce. It's similar enought to gochujang that I imagine there was some cultural crossover at some point. I've used both to make mapo tofu at one time or another, depending on which I could find at the market.

[infernooo]

Yoonhi says she usually does half-half.  It depends on your taste.  Find the right consistency for yourself.

I asked her about what else to add, and she immediately said "garlic" followed by "and the usual stuff".  Again, find the taste you like.

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Thank you Peter!!! (and everyone else too!)

So the garlic in this dipping sauce is finely crushed and raw?

Also, what type of vinegar is recommended or most often used? Rice-wine vinegar I am assuming?

Thanks again! :-)

Edited June 8, 2007 by infernooo (log)

[SheenaGreena]

yep rice vinegar and I believe the garlic is raw

[infernooo]

Thanks !

Might try it out tonight - will report back :-).

[SheenaGreena]

ohhhhhh what are you making?

[SheenaGreena]

I noticed that I didn't give any good recipes or suggestions to you. Instead of making what you'd usually make with dwanejang paste, I suggest making bossam. Bossam is one of my favorite winter dishes and is basically a steamed pork belly dish wrapped in lettuce (my family wraps ours in salted chinese cabbage) and eaten with raw oysters and kimchi. I think the oysters are used in the kimchi and one oyster is placed in each bossam package - at least that is how my family and I eat it. I found a really good recipe for it on this webpage

http://mykoreankitchen.com/2006/12/11/stea...ssam-in-korean/

however there are a few things I would change like what to wrap the pork in and the type of kimchi used. I would either use a really really sour (very old) cabbage kimchi, or oyster kimchi. I can find the oyster kimchi at my local korean grocer in the panchan section so hopefully you can find that too

[Peter Green]

Yoonhi says she usually does half-half.  It depends on your taste.  Find the right consistency for yourself.

I asked her about what else to add, and she immediately said "garlic" followed by "and the usual stuff".  Again, find the taste you like.

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Thank you Peter!!! (and everyone else too!)

So the garlic in this dipping sauce is finely crushed and raw?

Also, what type of vinegar is recommended or most often used? Rice-wine vinegar I am assuming?

Thanks again! :-)

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Yoonhi'd use fine miced garlic in this, and rice vinegar would be the standard.

Have fun!

[infernooo]

Success!

I made a dipping sauce as follows:

2 TB Gochujang

2 TB rice vinegar

1/4 ts sesame oil

1/2 clove garlic crushed

I used it with white-cut chicken (steamed chicken cut in a Chinese style with skin still intact) - it was brilliant!

Thanks again everyone :-)

[Joon]

Success!

I made a dipping sauce as follows:

2 TB Gochujang

2 TB rice vinegar

1/4 ts sesame oil

1/2 clove garlic crushed

I used it with white-cut chicken (steamed chicken cut in a Chinese style with skin still intact) - it was brilliant!

Thanks again everyone :-)

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Mmm! A little sugar would go great in that sauce too.