Slow Cooker Gochujang Lamb Stew
Gochujang is to Korean cuisine what miso is to Japanese cooking and sriracha to Thai food. This Gochujang lamb stew is an unusual but ingenious way to use it, even if I do say so myself.
Gochujang is a glutinous paste made with chillies, glutinous rice and fermented soybeans, amongst other things. It’s sticky and needs some liquid to loosen it up a bit. I had some Achill Mountain lamb in the freezer and so I decided to make a gochujang lamb stew, because you have to start somewhere.
I’d never used the paste before and I was kindly guided by the wise Donna Hennessy, who knows good gochujang based recipes. Based on her instructions, I decided that the spicy and slightly fermented taste would go well with a slow cooked and rather fatty meat.
I had the neck and a couple of shanks (I bought a whole lamb you see) and those pieces of meat render their fat and become deliciously tender and juicy when you cook them low and slow. I must say that I’m very happy with how this turned out and I’ve taken quite the shine to this very interesting condiment.
If you want to explore others’ ideas of what to do with it, can I direct you to Niamh Shield’s site, where she hosts several very appetising recipes.
Ingredients
- 1 pound of fatty lamb meat (neck and shanks are perfect for this).
- 2 table spoons of gochujang paste
- 1 whole bulb of garlic finely grated
- 1 table spoon of soy sauce
- 1 table spoon of honey
- 1 table spoon of fish sauce
- juice of 1 lemon or lime
- chilli powder to taste
- 1 table spoon of rice vinegar
- sesame seeds and scallions for garnish
- toasted sesame seed oil to drizzle
Method
- Place all the ingredients in the crock pot apart from the sesame seeds, scallions and toasted sesame seed oil.
- Cook on high for 3 hours (turn the meat once through out and add a bit of water if the sauce is too thick).
- Cook on low for 4 hours.
- Serve with rice and garnish.
