Gochujang and Miso

Monday night dinner features a Korean condiment- Gochujang and a Japanese condiment- Miso.

A recent discovery of Gochujang has allowed me to include some korean meat dishes to my repertoire. The mildly spicy and sweet sauce pairs extremely well with pork. This time however, I want to try it with chicken breast, making it into Dakgalbi (marinated chicken stirfry in Gochujang sauce). I like the way in which many veggies can be incorporated into Dakgalbi, making it an all in one dish. For most Koreans, rice cakes and sesame leaves are added into the dish on top of slice onions, cabbage, carrot and green onion. Since I don't have rice cakes and sesame leaves, I simply add more cabbage to make up for it.


Another side dish- Corn with bacon and miso butter, is a nice twist on buttered corn. The flavour of miso in this dish is subtle, but we like the colour constrast of corn kennels and bacon. The combination of sweet corns and savory bacon is highly addictive. It keeps drawing me to go back for more. I now proclaim this one of my favorite side dishes in 2007.