There is nothing that gives me imposter syndrome quite like an ingredient that I am only marginally familiar with, yet just familiar with enough to know that it ‘s deliciously useful. Usually, it starts this way: “Wow, that’s amazing”! Which is followed by despair at the realization that I don’t fully comprehend how the chef achieved what he did. Next comes my desire to figure it out, try to make and master said ingredient and lastly, use it in a way that elevates my cooking.
It happened to me with the butter at Restaurant Daniel, a black shallot fish broth from Eleven Madison Park, and a smoked scallop butter that René Redzepi brushed on a yakitori-grilled ramp. The latest rabbit hole I was forced to go down involved the production of Gochujang, the fermented Korean pepper paste. Its complexity and umami notes set it apart from other pepper mixes and pastes. So besides the desire to stock our pantry with ingredients capable of transforming our cooking, there was also the impetus to use and preserve the pounds of various chili pepper varieties produced by our urban farm. With this in mind, we set out in early October on a mission to craft our own Gochujang recipe, using our own freeze-dried chili powder and some of our food lab garums. After about 3.5 months of fermentation, proving once again that time is an ingredient, we excitedly paired it with Japanese A5 + wagyu scraps to produce a luscious, fiery fermented nduja. That became the lynchpin for our take on pepperoni pizza for last Monday’s 3rd Wave Pizza event. This Monday, we plan to pair it with some wagyu skirt for a multi-course steak event. At any rate, the initial trepidation I had for Gochujang has been replaced by the excitement of its probable inclusion in future One by Spork creations.
