ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS – DRIED

Korean chili powder / Hot pepper flakes (Gochugaru: 고추가루) 

Most Korean spiciness comes from this magic powder called gochugaru. It is essentially made with dried Korean red chilies. It mainly comes in two different formats – fine and coarse. Fine chili powder is mostly used when making gochujang and coarse chili powder covers the rest of Korean cooking needs.

So I buy coarse chili powder more frequently and store it in my fridge as it can get mouldy if you don’t store it well (e.g. storing it at room temperature). If your gochugaru starts hardening, you can use the food processor to separate it again. Just a few seconds of pulse will fix it.

Roasted sesame seeds (Bokken chamggae: 볶은 참깨) 

Roasted sesame seeds are usually used in a dish as a garnish. It adds a nutty warm flavor and nice crunchy texture to the dish. Typically it is used in Korean vegetable side dishes (Namul, 나물) and also in dipping sauces. I use both Korean (left) and Japanese (right) brand depending on the sesame seeds color I need at the time.

Ground black pepper (Huchu:후추) 

Ground black pepper is typically used when marinating BBQ meat. It helps get rid of the unique meat smell. I also love shaking this in to my Korean rice cake soup (Ddeok Guk, 떡국). It adds a nice aroma and mild spice kick to this bland soup. I just buy a bottle of whole black pepper (non-Korean) brand and ground it as I need it. 

Salt (Sogum: 소금) 

Salt is essential in any type of cooking but I thought I would show what I use. For my general cooking needs, I’ve been using the above Guun Sogum (구운소금: Roasted solar salt) for a few years. I really like this salt. I would consider it as a mild salt. The particles are very fine and it’s not too salty or bitter or sour. It’s also Kosher certified.

According to the manufacturer, “Korean Solar Salt is created by evaporation of sea water by wind and the sun. Because it contains so many healthy minerals, it is not too salty or sour so brings out the natural flavor of the dish. This salt is produced at “The Jewel of Shinan Island”, which is classified as an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve area so its natural quality is supposedly better than any others.

Though, when I make Kimchi or other pickled Korean dishes, I use rock salt (non-Korean brand). I was first introduced to this rock salt by my Brazilian friend. She used it when she makes Brazilian style steaks, which were marvelous. When I had some leftover rock salt after making these steaks, I tried them in some Kimchi and cucumber salad recipes and it worked great.

Basically when you make Kimchi or other pickled dishes, you need to use coarse salt rather than fine salt. I found that this rock salt is slightly larger than the typical Korean salt that are used in Kimchi. However I think this rock salt is more versatile for my general cooking needs and that’s why I’m using it.

Sugar (Sultang: 설탕) 

My husband thinks Koreans use sugar a lot in their main dishs. Do you think so too? I didn’t realise that until he pointed it out a very long time ago. In my defence, Koreans use sauces that are too strong on their own (soy sauce – salty, gochujang – spicy etc), so you need to balance it by adding something sweet (e.g. sugar) in the cooking. Well, that’s my theory anyway.

Typically, there are three different kinds of sugar – white sugar, yellow sugar and dark brown sugar in Korea. Some Koreans prefer using liquid forms of sugar (e.g. rice syrup or corn syrup or oligosaccharides) instead of powder forms of sugar. When I use powder forms of sugar, I use raw sugar 95% of the time as it’s the least processed. I only use white sugar (e.g. in a radish pickle) and dark brown sugar (e.g. in marinating a soy based BBQ meat) when the color of the food is important (e.g. for food photography or party food)