I'm writing this while enjoying an incredibly gorgeous and sunny day here in Boonville and I'm 100% positive that the sun and warmth has put everyone in a good mood. Which makes it a perfect day for a new chile!
Our newest chile from the 2023 harvest is ready for your spice drawer: It's Korean Gochugaru Chile Powder!
Chiles for Gochugaru were a new addition to the farm at the request of the Curio Spice team. The plants were fairly productive and we ended up with about 47 pounds of Gochugaru chile powder. The majority is set aside for Curio, but we've got a bit available for you too!
Gochugaru is one of the classic ingredients in a Korean kitchen, and in recent years gochugaru and gochujang (the fermented chile paste) have been having their moment across the U.S. There are generally two different types of gochugaru - a larger flake and a more fine powder.
We ground ours to be somewhere in the middle. It has a deep, earthy flavor whose heat hits towards the tip of the tongue and lingers. I just ate a bit straight. The earthy flavor is mellow and the heat definitely remains. We gave it 3 out of 4 stars on the heat scale.
I think our Gochugaru chile powder is a bit hotter than what you would purchase somewhere else, so be careful when following different recipes! Some will call for very large quantities of the chile powder and you can dial it down when using ours.
How to Use Gochugaru
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If you are a NYT Cooking subscriber, here’s a recipe list that uses gochugaru and one from Bon Appetit.
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Kimchi sundubu-jjigae (Spicy soft tofu stew with kimchi and pork belly): This soup became a favorite of mine when I lived in Boston and would trudge across the city to Allston with my best friends on cold nights to get ripping hot bowls of sundubu-jjigae. There’s plenty of recipes online for different types to make so don’t think you have to use pork belly.
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A big batch of Kimchi!
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Tteokbokki (Rice Cakes): I love Tteokbokki for their texture and there’s tons of recipes out there for different ways to cook with them
