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Sesame-Chile Paste

You can buy go chu jang, the excellent, slightly sweet and not-superhot Korean chile paste that is a part of Crab Soup (page 135) and many other Korean dishes, but in many places it’s easier just to make this substitute, which keeps for about a month, covered, in the refrigerator. It’s a good sauce for any grilled food or even raw vegetables. The best chile powder for this is not the typical Mexican chile powder but ground Korean chiles—co chu kara—which (obviously) you can buy at Korean markets (you can also buy pretoasted and ground sesame seeds). It’s bright red, looks like coarse cayenne, and is not super hot. A good alternative is chile powder made from ground New Mexico chiles.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes about 1/4 cup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons co chu kara
2 scallions, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds (page 596), ground
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

Preparation

  1. Combine all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Use immediately or store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to a month.

The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman. © 2005 by Mark Bittman. Published by Broadway Books. All Rights Reserved. MARK BITTMAN is the author of the blockbuster The Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.
TagsCondimentKoreanEast AsianAsianChileVegetableDairy FreeNut FreeVeganVegetarianMake AheadQuickEasyNo-CookBlenderFood ProcessorCookbooks
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