The Korean Chili Pepper
In this collection of recipes, I wanted to include some additional information about chili peppers. My first idea was to ask Chef Daniel Sharp about the chilies that are available in Oaxaca. That morphed into Dried Chilies of Oaxaca. Shortly after I had that idea, I decided to take a closer look at the fresh chili peppers available at my local H Mart.
Like so many things at that store, I can spend years being totally oblivious to their presence (sorry, Korean radish). Then Chef Kyungbin Min usually tells me about an ingredient we need for a cooking class (again, that Korean radish) and I wonder how it was possible not to notice.
As I was taking pictures on my phone of fresh chilies, I came across a giant box of green Korean chili peppers. How had I not noticed this one before? Is it because I always go for the packaged fresnos with the intention of making an amazing hot sauce I learned from former Alinea Sous Chef and Chopped Champion Chris Dodson?
I reached out to Chef Kyungbin about this new-to-me discovery. Here’s what I learned!
What is commonly done with fresh Korean chili peppers?
“Fresh green Korean chili peppers are usually made into banchan, used in soups and stews, or eaten raw. My favorite way to eat them is raw with ssamjang.”
I assume this chili is then turned into gochugaru.
“When this pepper turns red, it is then dried and turned into gochugaru (chili flakes). They are dried in the sun, which helps ripens the chili peppers faster. So even if they aren’t all red at the start, they will probably ripen to the right color before they are dried. Gochugaru is used for sauces, kimchi, soups – basically everything. I like to use it in sauces, braises, and stews.
Gochugaru is also used to make gochujang.”
How do you like to use gochugaru?
“It’s really used in all the same ways as gochujang.”
Is there anything you would substitute for gochugaru?
“If I can’t find chili flakes from Korea, I’ll used chili flakes from Mexico.”
Have you ever dried your own chilies for gochugaru or fermented your own gochujang?
“No and no! But I found a teacher who is teaching me how to do that right now.”
I also asked Chef Kyungbin if he wanted to share a recipe using the Korean chili pepper in the fresh, dried, or fermented form. He reminded me about the on-demand cooking class we filmed in February where we made a Spicy Korean Chicken Stew (Dakdoritang) (insert link to class). We also made a White Kimchi (Dongchimi) with, you guessed it, Korean radish.