Gochujang Scallion Cornbread With Honey Butter Glaze Recipe

I’ve an extended, loving relationship with cornbread. I’ll eat it any which manner—candy, Northern-style, or unsweetened as they do within the South—and I’m at all times the one who finishes off my buddy’s courtesy slices once we’re eating at a barbecue joint. I am clearly not the one one who deeply loves cornbread: Every time it is on the curriculum of the cooking class I educate, it usually disappears quicker than anything we have ready that day. And every time I carry cornbread dressing to Thanksgiving, it is the primary facet to go. 

Although it isn’t broadly identified, Korea additionally has a deep reference to cornbread. Within the Nineteen Sixties, when South Korea struggled to get well after the Korean Warfare, the US supplied meals support within the type of cornmeal and powdered milk (amongst many different meals) within the hopes of shaping Korean style buds and turning the nation right into a future export market. All through the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, South Korean faculties served oksusu-pang—a troublesome, gritty, oval cornbread—one thing that has now turn out to be extremely nostalgic for a lot of Koreans.

“Its seemingly unappetizing trait of being onerous and tough in texture is what made the bread so distinctive,” Nicole Choi famous for Roads and Kingdoms in 2015. “At this time, the seek for this elusive cornbread is ubiquitous amongst a sure technology of South Koreans,” together with the well-known meals blogger Maangchi, who shared a recipe for oksusu-pang on her web site in 2015. Whereas my model differs in texture and taste from what number of in Korea keep in mind it, I take into consideration the dish’s historic significance consistently—and the liberty I now must construct on it.

For this model of my cornbread, I made a decision to include recent scallions and gochujang, a candy, spicy paste made with chiles, rice flour, and soybeans. I’ve had pals inform me this cornbread is sort of a savory, fluffy Johnnycake with a each kick and umami from gochujang, a fermented chile paste.

Although the cornbread has some sugar, it is not overly candy, and a gochujang–honey–butter glaze offers it a nice, salty-sweet edge. I wish to garnish with toasted white sesame seeds and typically serve the cornbread with toasted sesame oil, which offers a welcome nuttiness. It is a terrific addition to accompany roast meats, fish, or greens at dinner, and it makes a superb present for individuals who love a spicy baked good.