Here is my home made gochujang recipe, as requested. It took me about a day and half to make but there is probably a year’s supply of gochujang for a light user, about 3-4 months for a Korean. I remember when I was young my Grandma spending one day a year making gochujang, she would make enough for a year and keep it in traditional Korean pots which helped it to age.
Korean Red pepper paste is a staple sauce used throughout Korean cooking, It is used in most Korean dishes that are spicy such as Jeyuk bokkeum, Bibimbap and ddukbokki. It is warm, sweet and spicy and goes well with most meats and also has a lot of health benefits to.
This Recipe makes about 5-6 Kg of Gochujang Sauce, it is easier to make it in this sort of quantity than say 500g amounts.
Homemade gochujang recipe Ingredients:
6 Litres of water 450g of Malt Powder 450g of Glutinous Rice Powder 450g of Soy Bean Powder 1kg of Fine Red Pepper Powder 350g of Salt 600g of Honey
Start by filling a large Saucepan (I have used a pasta one) with 6 litres of boiling water. Let the water cool a bit so it doesn’t burn but you want it to be hot, place 450g of malt powder in to a tea towel or Muslim cloth and make this in to a ball. You will need to put this ball in to the water and start swirling it around, every 30 seconds or so you will need to squeeze the tea towel ball hard. Continue doing this until the water is light brown in colour about 10 to 15 squeezes.
Once complete the malt powder ball can be binned, add the glutinous rice powder to the water and bring to boil whilst stirring, keep on boil for a couple of minutes then turn off the heat and leave to stand for 30 minutes stirring occasionally.
After about 30 minutes come back to the mixture and bring to boil, you need to reduce it by about half to 3 litres. Keep the heat as high as you can, if it bubbles up remove from heat for a couple of seconds and then put back on again, Keep stirring occasionally so the mixture doesn’t settle and it should reduce is about 45 minutes, don’t worry if it takes longer.
Turn off the heat and leave to cool down for a couple of hours or overnight, once cooled it is time to add the soy bean powder and red pepper powder, mix this well. The mixture will go quite thick and stiff like glue, keep stirring and it should start to resemble a red pepper paste. Leave again for about 30 minutes.
Finish the sauce of by adding the salt and the honey, the salt helps with preservation and the honey gives it its unique sweetness. Mix this all together well and your home made gochujang is complete, you can use it straight away and I would leave it to stand in your saucepan for another 24 hours before bottling it up.
In South Korea gochujang is stored in our famous pots which help it to breath and age, but you can keep it in whatever you have spare I have used old jars and sauce pots that I have left over. The sauce should keep for well over a year and the taste will improve in time as well, Keep in a cool dark place and have an open jar in the fridge when in use.
I would love to hear from you if you have successfully used this gochujang recipe!
