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Recipe

GOCHUJANG

Serves: 20
If they like it, it serves 20 otherwise  - thinking face emoji
Preparation time: 4 hours
Cooking time: 2 hours
Totaltime: 6 hours 0 minutes

What is gochujang? Gochujang (고추장), Korean fermented chili pepper paste, is one of the primary Korean seasoning and flavoring ingredients. The red thick paste is deeply savory, peppery, pungent, slightly sweet and spicy! No wonder everything tastes better with gochujang! Traditionally homemade, gochujang is made of gochugaru (Korean red chili peppers), sweet syrupy liquid made with yeotgireum (엿기름, malt barley), meju garu (fermented soybean powder), sweet rice or other grain powder, and salt. These ingredients are mixed well to a thick paste and placed in earthenware pots to ferment for months.

Ingredients

  • 500 grams yeotgireum (엿기름) (Barley malt powder)
    500 grams wet chapssal garu (찹쌀) - sweet rice flour or 2 cups sweet rice soaked and blended
    250 grams meju garu (메주가루), fermented soybean powder
    250 grams Korean Cheonilyeom (천일염) coarse sea salt (bittern removed)
    500 grams finely ground gochugaru, 고추가루 - Gochugaru is made from bright red Korean chile peppers with the seeds and membranes removed
    1 cup jocheong (조청), rice syrup - optional or masilcheong (Korean green plump syrup)

Preparation


  • How to make gochujang at home as explained here by Hyosun on the following site:

    https://www.koreanbapsang.com/how-to-make-gochujang/

    Here, I’m sharing how to make gochujang the traditional way my mother used to make.
    Place the barley malt in a large bowl. Stir in 10 cups of warm water, and let it sit for an hour or two, up to overnight.

    - How to Make Gochujang
    Rub the malt between palms and squeeze out milky liquid. Strain the malt liquid through a fine sieve into another bowl. If you don’t have a fine sieve, line a strainer with a cheesecloth. Then, squeeze the malt husks with your hands through the sieve to drain out the remaining liquid. Transfer the liquid to a large heavy bottom pot.

    - How to Make Gochujang
    Place the malt husks in the first bowl and add another 10 cups of water. No need for an additional soaking time. Repeat the squeezing and straining process. Transfer the liquid to the pot with the first batch of milky liquid. This will yield about 17 to 18 cups of malt water.

    4
    Add the sweet rice powder to the malt water and stir well. Turn the heat on to warm it up. Warm but not too hot to touch. Turn the heat off, and let it sit for two hours. During this process, the enzymes in the malt will break down the starch in sweet rice and convert to sugar.


    Turn the heat on to medium and boil the liquid down to a half, stirring once in a while. Measure the depth of the liquid with a wooden spoon or spatula, so you can easily tell when the liquid is reduced to a half. This will take about 2 hours and the resulting liquid will be around 8 to 9 cups. You’ll need about 8 cups for this recipe, but a little bit of extra is nice to have just in case. If you're using other optional liquid, you can reduce it further. Stir once in a while. Let it cool down a bit.



    While the liquid is still warm, pour 7 cups of the malt liquid into a large bowl, and add the salt. If you're not using Korean sea salt, hold some back and add as necessary after mixing dry ingredients. Stir to dissolve. This is about a cup less than what’s required so you can add the rest or optional ingredients as needed.



    Using a whisk, stir in the fermented soybean powder and mix well until you see no lumps.


    Stir-in the gochugaru and mix very well until there are no big lumps. Continue to stir. You can use a large wooden spoon or spatula this time. If the gochujang is too thick, use more malt liquid or optional rice syrup (jocheong), plum extract, and/or soju to adjust the thickness and sweetness. It should be thin enough to slowly drop from the wooden spoon or spatula like a thick batter. Let it sit for a few hours until the dry ingredients fully absorb the liquid, and salt is completely melted. Adjust the saltiness, sweetness, and thickness as necessary. Gochujang should be a bit too salty to eat as is.


    Transfer to a jar(s) or an earthenware -- onggi hangari, if you have one. Lightly sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Cover with a fine mesh fabric or cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band.
Have you tried the recipe?

Gochujang

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