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I sat at a long wooden table at Moolmaru’s traditional soy-making school on Jeju Island, Korea, adjusted my apron, and caught the attention of a nearby child.
I have clearly misunderstood the composition of the classroom: most of my classmates seem to have left kindergarten. This made me even more skeptical about my Korean skills. But I hope I can at least keep up with the conference. It may be so.
I go to school to learn to cook gochujang, my current favorite.
Gochu in Korean it means chili, jang means fermented soybeans or soybeans.
This formidable red chili sauce is the key backbone of Korean cuisine’s sweet and spicy flavor, bringing a spicy flavor to famous dishes like steaks, mixed rice. bibimbap, Soup Buddha-jjigae, fried chicken rice Yangnyeom and the spicy rice cake peeling the tongue tteokbokki.
Sauce dishes gochujang Spicy slowly until it suddenly becomes spicier – if used correctly the spicy taste never reaches the mouth, but creates an aftertaste with surreal ambient flavors. Of course, eating to the point of burning your tongue is sometimes fun.
First of all, my passion is purely about the ego: wanting to firmly oppose the Korean prejudice that Westerners don’t like spicy food.
Historically they also got the point right. One of the first things Westerners write about Korea is the 1890 record of Queen Victoria’s astronaut Isabella Bird.
She was terrified of “soy sauce that has a pungent and unpleasant smell, whose main ingredients are chili and fermented rotten soybeans!”
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Tteokbokki, a spicy peeled rice cake cooked with gochujang chili sauce
Fortunately, the taste and feel have changed.
Today chili sauce gochujang is a popular item in the UK and US, featured in everyone’s favorite trend forecast, from food wholesaler Bidfood to the National Restaurant Association.
Often referred to as “chili sauce Sriracha new “, this type of soy sauce has moved from specialty stores to giant supermarkets and fast food stands.
Not accidentally that. Chili sauce companies gochujang has spent the last decade developing an export strategy.
In Korea, chili sauce gochujang Sold in raw form, it is the basic ingredient for making sauces, used to marinate foods and cook dishes over low heat and stews.
But this thick, gooey chili sauce has been redesigned into liquid condiment bottles that resemble toothpaste on the western market, often paired with other sauces like mayo to make it more familiar. The spiciness was also adjusted downward.
Chili sauce maker gochujang It even partnered with the Korean Culinary Research Institute to create a new measure of spiciness, called GHU (eg. gochujang).
This approach works: in 2018, Korea exported soy sauce gochujang For a value of US $ 36.81 million, an increase of 15% from the previous year, the majority of these products are shipped to the UK and US.
But the real draw is not the spiciness but the complexity of the flavor.
Chili sauce gochujang to taste many flavors at the same time, spicy, but also sweet and salty with a touch of sweetness umami hidden underneath, in korean called gamchilmat.
That flavor is irreplaceable; Perhaps that is the reason why 21% of the products are similar gochujang The repackaging is exported abroad, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Xiang gochujang It is unique to Korea, but not so chili. Chili only appeared in the country since the late 16th century, after following in the footsteps of the first European explorers who left the Americas 100 years earlier and found their way around the world.
Scientifically, they are peppers. Capsicum annuum, which is the largest of the five domesticated peppers, and includes the addition of chili jalapenos.
The first record of chili sauce gochujang It is from the curator Si-pil Yi, who in the 1720s wrote a summary of the food eaten at court.
That is the recipe for the dish Sunchang gochjang, is named after an area that is still famous today for its chili sauce.
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Gochujang is the backbone of Korean-style spicy sweet taste
Located about 230 km south of Seoul, Sunchang County celebrates its culinary heritage with an annual culinary festival in Gochujang Village.
There is also the Sunchang Traditional Xiangru Museum, located at 43 Jangnyu-ro, which translates to “The way of fermented soybeans.”
Here, the cultural tour guide Won-jun Yang explained to me why chili sauce in Sunchang was for the king.
“There are three reasons for chili sauce gochujang Sunchang is really delicious, ”said Yang, who also writes about ketchup. gochujang for the Sunchang County website, for example.
“First, most regions do the same gochujang about spring but chili sauce gochujang At Sunchang, they work in August and September of the lunar calendar and then leave the fermentation for the winter. Second, the water in this region is very delicious. Third, Sunchang has more than 77 foggy days a year, the watery air like air bubbles is ideal for bacteria and fermentation. ”
And these bacteria are good for humans too.
Russian from the beginning, similar gochujang Used as a medicinal food, especially for indigestion.
He is also famous for saving King Yeongjo’s life in 1784; This may be an exaggeration, but the ancient healers were on the right track.
Today, we know that naturally fermented foods are good for the gut, and Korean soybeans are linked to a wide range of health benefits, from low cholesterol maintenance to resistance to cancer. letters.
But chili sauce gochujang It quickly went beyond healing and became the defining flavor of Korean cuisine.
During the 18th century, the same appeared in royal notes, in housekeeper letters, and even written in poetry.
In the late 1800s, it was a popular dish: Isabella Bird notes that people of all ages, even babies, eat gochujang.
I came to think of this information when a kindergarten child instructed me on how to name ingredients in a cooking class. With the same brown apron and the same beginner reading level, I seem to be a perfect fit in class.
The large classroom window overlooks the schoolyard, which is filled with a giant pile of fermented pottery called onggi.
When the founder of Moolmaru, Jeong-seon Bu, grew up, most families had a fortune. onggi Contains handcrafted soybeans and chili sauce from home gardens.
Today, most Koreans live in apartments and buy soy sauce. gochujang Packed in plastic containers that can be easily refrigerated.
That’s one of the reasons Bu founded Moolmaru in 2005. He has three patents for the process. He is concerned that the taste of handmade food will gradually disappear in Korean cuisine.
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Gochujang is fermented in huge onggi ceramic baskets.
“Education is important to preserve heritage,” he said, adding that despite accepting students of all ages, he wants to focus on preschoolers.
“Children are very sensitive to flavors. It is the perfect time to teach about the taste of the perfect fermented soybeans.”
Ms. Bu clearly understood the students. The first step is to do the same gochujang boiled soybeans, which are the basic ingredients of all Korean soybeans.
She insisted that we do this step with traditional crafts, and the children enjoyed wearing white boots to stomp on until they were ragged. The crushed soybeans will be molded into round brick-like cubes, called with you and ‘resting’ on the straw.
After 40 days, with you will ferment and dry, absorb good fungi and bacteria similar to the process of fermenting flour with sour yeast sourdough on the kitchen counter.
These bricks are then crushed and combined with chili powder. gochugaru made from dried red chili.
The only other ingredient in Ms. Bu’s recipe is adding vegetable broth, salt, barley flour to increase sweetness, a little fruit yeast to increase fermentation, and flour to make the finished product. It has a name like this: used by Mrs. Bu ssal (which means rice), so your soy sauce is chili rice sauce ssal gochujang.
After that, the mixture is put into persimmon. onggi for fermentation.
“Today It is a living being. They breathe, “explains Bu, referring to the porous ceramic that allows air to circulate.” It’s the perfect environment for good microorganisms. ”
Tuong gochujang It will start to be consumed after one year, but Ms. Bu said that if it takes two years, the taste will be ripe, fit and delicious. If left on longer, the soy sauce will taste bitter.
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Gochujang chili sauce makes Korean dishes famous for their spicy taste, such as bibimbap
My active classmates obviously wouldn’t want to wait that long, so we chose a delicious mix, which is a quick version of garlic, fresh ginger, and pickled cucumbers.
Bu also tried us a chili sauce, which consists of radish, broccoli powder, and kiwi jam – not the ingredients you’d expect from a traditional artisan.
I asked Ms Bu about the type of chili sauce gochujang In a moldable tube and the mixed spicy mayonnaise sauce that is shaping up to be alcohol in the West, it is also a tribute to Korean cuisine but far from the traditional familiar flavor.
To my surprise, he said he supported me. She even tried some dishes herself, like ketchup mixed with soy sauce. gochujang, used to spread over local black pork.
“It is a great opportunity to create a new culinary culture,” he said smiling. And create a new generation of chili sauce lovers gochujangI thought as I looked at the little chefs sitting next to me.
I think this class is suitable for me after all.
