Premium Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste – Item of the Day
Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.
Today’s TSP Item of the day is Premium Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste. I first discovered Gochujang (pronounced “go che jang”) when I found a TV show called Korean Food Made Simple by a chef named Judy Joo. While I didn’t become a massive fan of the chef or the show it did expose me to some unique ingredients and methods of cooking. Likely the biggest win from this show was finding Gochujang, or simply fermented Korean chili paste.
I went with this brand because most commercial products have corn syrup in them. Traditional Gochujang is made with rice, chilis and fermented soy beans and salt. That is what is in this version, it costs a bit more but it is worth it. Besides while not blow you brains out hot, this stuff is hot and brings a ton of flavor to the party, so a 1.1 pound tub lasts a long time.
So how do you use this stuff, man there are a ton of ways but let me give you one example of how we use it. We make fried Japanese sweet potatoes. They have purple skin and snow white flesh. They are about half way between a typical potato and a orange sweet potato in taste. We twice fry them, into a wok with peanut oil, fry until almost done, remove and drain, let cool 10 minutes and return to the oil for another few minutes to puff and crisp up.
Next mix the gochujang at a ratio of 1 part gochujang to 3 parts mayo, (commercial is fine home made is better), let it sit for about 10 minutes to bind and blend, then serve the potatoes with this on the side. It is sort of like a suracha mayo many are familiar with but on a whole new level.
I also made some burgers with this stuff, just a table spoon of this into a pound of venison and feral hog mixed ground, a bit of salt and pepper, bit of dehydrated garlic, table spoon of black bean paste and let sit for about 15 minutes to bind and blend, grill as normal. Of course a bit of that gouchang mayo on it is sublime. We also process fish skin and head on, slit the skin and rub this stuff on the outside and inside of the fish and grill whole on the grill, it is amazing.
So check this stuff out, add it to your pantry and start experimenting. Oh and since it is a fermented paste product it stores very well long term, so it is an awesome pantry staple for preppers. One way or another give Premium Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste a shot and I don’t think you will be disappointed.
Lastly I do want to say I do consider this product fine for people on any sort of low carb diet. Yes it includes rice syrup and some soy paste, but the amount used is so low relative to the entire meal that I can’t see it effecting blood sugar in any meaningful way. I am also opposed to large amount of soy in the diet, least you become a soy boy, but again the amount used here is tiny and all the ingredients are fermented as well.
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It’s great for grilling meats aka korean bbq
Thanks Jack, that gochujang-mayo sounds like an awesome recipe idea! I already use gochujang for Chuncheon dakgalbi chicken (a relatively easy and tasty spicy chicken dish; just google it if one wants to try it), but I don’t make it very frequently so having another use for the gochujang in my fridge is great. Definitely trying this for the next time I make burgers and fries…
Biltong for Breakfast will be a perfect complement to the Harvest Eating blog, since Keith Snow went vegan.
Yes there was a great disturbance in the force, a new power had to rise to balance it.
I bet this would make some awesome hot wings
I’ve only used this paste in a few ways but have gone through 2.5 tubs shortly after being introduced to it. This was the missing flavor in my life! ha ha ha. I need to looking into more ways of using it though. I’ll have to try the mayo suggestion. Sounds legit.
I tried the gochujang mayo, and while I didn’t care for it as much on fries or sweet potato fries, it was pretty decent when used for a burger. But it worked really well when used as a spread on a pork belly sandwich (pork belly marinated with brown sugar, soy sauce, & garlic) with lettuce, tomato, and sliced cucumber. Probably would be good with other pork sandwiches too. Just FYI 🙂
But were they twice fried Japanese purple sweet potatoes?
@Jack
Hehe admittedly no… we don’t have any purple sweet potatoes here, just the brownish/beige-skinned kind with a light orange flesh that comes from South Korea and/or China. I didn’t dislike the gochujang mayo with the fries, I just ultimately still preferred ketchup or ranch dressing for it (yeah yeah I’m a heathen, I get it 🙂
I did like the twice-fried method for the fries themselves though, even using the different kind of sweet potato and the local potatoes I had (I also sprinkled a bit of cinnamon which adds to it nicely IMHO). The only problem is I have to cook them when the wife isn’t around, because when she is around she alternates between complaining about how she doesn’t like fried foods and, well, eating a lot of the fries… 😛