[Story] Essential Korean Ingredients

Cooking Korean food is exciting because you can use different ingredients that you may not have come across before.

Korean food uses a vast range of different ingredients for different dishes but there are some fundamental ingredients that you will find most Korean people have in their kitchen! In this blog we will introduce a few of the main ingredients that you will come across when exploring Korean dishes. Many of these are also used in our available recipes for menus using the Ddukbaegi.

1. Gochujang 고추장 (Korean red chilli paste) is a popular Korean paste that is used in many Korean dishes. It is a sweet and spicy paste made from chilli powder, glutinous rice, fermented soybean powder and a few other fine powders. Before the paste became mass produced in factories, traditionally it would be naturally fermented over years in a jangdok (Korean earthenware container) per household. You will find Gochujang in nearly every Korean person’s kitchen; it is used in so many different dishes like Dolsot Bibimbap, Ddeokbokki and marinated meat.

2. Doenjang 된장 (Soybean paste) could be said to be the second most commonly used paste after Gochujang. It is a fermented bean paste originally made entirely of soybean and brine. The production and fermentation process of Doenjang is intricate and detailed; the taste can be affected according to various external factors such as the temperature and humidity. Doenjang can be eaten as a dipper for vegetables (as gochujang can), used to make ssamjang (another popular dipping paste for meat and fresh vegetables) and is also used in soup broth like Doenjang Jjigae.

3. Korean soy sauce 간장 is widely used for korean recipes. There are two major types of soy sauce: regular soy sauce and soy sauce for soup. Regular soy sauce is very similar to the soy sauce used in Japanese or North American cuisine. It has a lot of flavour and is used for marinating or stir-frying food. Soy sauce for soup (Guk-Gan-Jang 국간장 or Josean Ganjang 조선간장), however, is unique to Korean cooking. Soy sauce is used for cooking soup or vegetable side dishes, it is thought that the sauce has been used in korean cusine for over 1000 years!

4, Korean spiciness is mostly produced by a unique powder called Gochugaru 고추가루 (Korean red chili flake). It is an essential ingredient in Kimchi which is a representative Korean side dish but it is also used very often for adding the spicy flavor to Korean foods. It is made using dried Korean red chilies (which are VERY spicy!).

5. There are also some key ingredients that are probably familiar to most people; you can find many ingredients in normal supermarkets. Some ingredients used a lot are minced garlic, spring onions, sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds. Although these ingredients may seem insignificant they play a big part in enhancing the visuals and flavours of Korean dishes.

You will find you use all of these ingredients a lot in Korean cooking. Explore our recipes to see how these different ingredeints are used in dishes made with Ddukbaegis!