#Do you like Korean food?
I personally do. From liking the food, I set myself on a journey to try cooking them myself. These days although Korean restaurants and street-food look alike are everywhere, I still find the lack of homemade feels to it. I watched many content creators from Korea who cooked the food and made it fresh from simple ingredients. From Korean cuisine, I learned that nutritious and delicious meals can be made from something simple and with just one key sauce that basically will get us various dishes. That sauce is called Gocujhang which is made from gochu-garu (chili powder), glutinous rice, meju (fermented soybean) powder, yeotgireum (barley malt powder), and salt. Today I will show you some of the simple meals I made just by using Gochujang sauce. So, let’s go to my humble kitchen!
Bibimbap
Bibimbap is a delicious nutrition packed dish with rice as its base. You probably see this in K-dramas or just from a menu at a Korean restaurant. There are many ways to add vegetables into bibimbap. Basically in this meal you can find protein, carbs and vegetables. In restaurants around my place, they sell the version that I call “the classic bibimbap” but today, I made it with ingredients that I have at home. My bibimbap version has steamed carrot, cucumber, spinach, bean sprouts, corned beef with soy sauce topped with fried egg and finally gochujang sauce on top. I was also serving it with dried seaweed laver which I think is a must when eating bibimbap.
My version of Jjigae
Jjigae is literally translated as stew. There are many ways to make this like the most common one that you see in Korean dramas is Soondubu Jjigae. My first experiment to make jjigae was simply using gochujang which you can also call gochujang jjigae. In Korea, they make it with pork but I just made it with vegetables with cucumber, carrot and bean sprouts. This is very good to have during rainy and colder days, like these days. When making this Jjigae, I don’t forget to add soy sauce and sesame seeds. What I learned from these, is that soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seeds are also important ingredients of Korean cuisine especially the stews.
Homemade Tteokbokki
I should have added my version of gochujang and doenjang baked chicken but that’s for later. So, for the final ideas with gochujang, I made my own tteokbokki just by following the recipe from Nino's Home. Tteokbokki is simply made with rice flour and water but the tricky part was the kneading process where we have to make sure it’s very smooth. In my first attempt, I failed but eventually, I found ways to keep the consistency of the dough. Then the important part is the sauce which is made from gochujang,soy sauce, sugar, and water. Once again, during my first attempt, I added too much water. The key to making the sauce is basically making sure that you add the right amount of water and let the water reduce until it creates a sticky sauce-like consistency. If you make a portion, making this delicious chewy snack wouldn’t take more than an hour of your time. You can also add extra spiciness into this snack by adding chili powder but since I don't like anything too spicy, I skipped adding chili powder.
Next time if you find gochujang at your asian market or local supermarket, you should get it. It’s a great investment sauce that you can pair with rice, vegetable, and to use as a stew base.