Coho Salmon with Gochujang-Roasted Carrots

I was lying wide awake in bed one early morning not too long ago when a dinner idea popped into my head pretty much out of nowhere. I had a lot of carrots in the refrigerator that I needed to use. The idea was to roast those carrots with the funky fermented Korean chile paste called gochujang.

I have been missing the bold, direct, and earthy flavors of Korean food a lot recently. Ordinarily, we could sate our cravings at any of the myriad Korean restaurants west of Portland in Beaverton. But with this pandemic, we're not going out to eat. Any Korean-inflected food that we eat, I am going to have to make myself.

Always prepared for such an eventuality, I keep a tub of gochujang in the refrigerator. It is a wonderful flavor builder. With the exception of the inherent sweetness from the glutinous rice powder that it contains, gochujang has an earthy funkiness that reminds me a bit of the sambals (fiery Thai bird chiles fermented in fish sauce) that we used to ferment at the restaurant for our own consumption. While the staff and select customers enjoyed these sauces, they were way too spicy to unleash on the general public. 

In the same vein, we used to make dozens of kinds of kimchee at the restaurant in addition to dozens of kinds of western pickles and sauerkraut. After fermenting on the counter in the pastry station, various batches of kimchee would go onto a specially reserved shelf in our walk-in refrigerator, to keep the health department at bay. Most pickles don't need to be refrigerated, but our health inspectors have been trained that any unrefrigerated food is bad. Anyway, the dozens and dozens of pickle containers on our pickle shelf was a site to see.

These pickles, our sambals, and gochujang all serve similar purposes in the kitchen. They are instant spicy umami bombs that naturally complement other flavors, especially sweet flavors such as carrots.

I was actually intrigued enough by the carrot idea at 3 am that I roused myself to write a note on my phone so that I would not forget it. Good thing too: the next morning I had no recollection of the idea until I saw the note I left for myself.

Seared Coho Salmon with Gochujang-Roasted Carrots

But roasted carrots do not a meal make. Taking inventory of the refrigerator the next morning, I found a half a pound of wild Coho salmon and some baby spinach. That was enough to make a complete dish: seared Coho on gochujang-roasted carrots, topped with the classic Korean spinach banchan called sigeumchi namul.

Toasting Sesame Seeds

I wanted to toast sesame seeds for both the spinach and the carrots. Lightly toasting them really brings out the flavor. You can see the color just starting to change in the photo above and the toasted color in the photo below. Toss sesame seeds in a dry pan over a high flame until they get to the color you want, them remove them from a pan to a cool container. If you leave the seeds in a hot pan, they will continue to cook beyond what you want.

Making the Sigeumchi Namul

"Recipes" for sigeumchi namul are as varied as there are cooks. I've made fancier versions and I've made plainer. So as not to detract from the salmon, I wanted to keep this version pretty straightforward.

I started by blanching half a pound of baby spinach leaves for just a few seconds. Once a batch of spinach came out of the hot water, I put it in ice water to fix the bright green color and stop the cooking while I finished all the batches of spinach.

After the spinach was fully chilled, I squeezed it dry. Then I dressed it right in the bowl with toasted sesame seeds, minced garlic, and a splash each of rice vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce. After mixing, I set the bowl in the refrigerator to await dinner.

Making the Gochujang Sauce

Before roasting the carrots, I wanted to coat them in gochujang, so I mixed up a couple big spoonfuls of gochujang, with a splash of sesame oil and a splash of soy sauce. It still wasn't quite liquid enough and I didn't want to add more oil, so I added a tablespoon or two of warm water to make the sauce flow.

Before roasting the carrots in the oven, I tossed them in this sauce, reserving the remainder of the sauce for later. Because of their tapered shape, carrots are difficult to roast: the slim root end cooks a lot faster than the chunkier leaf end. Stealing a technique from Chinese cooking, I roll cut a bunch of carrots into roughly equally sized pieces to even out the cooking.

Gochujang-Roasted Carrots

After about 20 minutes in a hot oven (425F), the carrots were tender, yet still firm, with nice caramelization along the edges. While still hot from the oven, I put them back into the leftover gochujang sauce and tossed them along with some toasted sesame seeds. Once I plated the carrots, I still had some gochujang sauce left in the bowl to drizzle over the fish for a plate garnish.

As good as the crispy-skin coho was, the carrots were the star of the show. The funky spicy sauce really contrasted with the sweet carrots and earthy sesame seeds in a delicious marriage of flavors. Gochujang-roasted carrots is definitely an idea I need to keep in mind for both Ann and I want more, fish or no fish.