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I've been looking at a number of kim chi recipes and they all call for 'Korean chili powder'. My visit to the local Asian grocer only yielded 'Asian' chili powder and other nondescript chili powders.

Is there a particular chili powder that is Korean? Can I simply use cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes?

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Chli in the title should be Chili. (Does anyone have mod rights yet?) – glasnt Jul 19 '10 at 1:14
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2 Answers

up vote 11 down vote accepted

Korean chilli is a little different as it has a slight smoky flavour, in addition to being slightly sweet and also quite hot.

The actual name of the chilli use in kimchi and for that matter, most Korean dishes is gochugaru (고추가루). It comes in a variety of preparations, typically, finely ground, flakes and a paste.

You should be able to find this in most good supermarkets or an Asian store. If it helps I've uploaded an image of what to look for:

alt text

If you can't get this, you can still use a good quality chilli powder or possibly, a paste.

alt text

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Actually, most kimchi recipes call for gochugaru (transliterations vary), which is simply red chili flakes. Gochujang is a fermented soybean paste with lots of chili added to it and is not usually used in kimchi (though it is used in many other Korean dishes), as a quick google can tell you. – Dennis Jul 22 '10 at 21:52
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Corrected. I've only been learning Korean for two weeks. – Pulse Jul 23 '10 at 5:17
Just to clarify, the top picture is gochugaru; the bottom is gochujang. – Dennis Jul 23 '10 at 12:35
up vote 1 down vote

The difference may be the conditions the chili grew in. It's the same pepper, except it grew in a different place. In each recipe with hot chili, you can exchange it for any other kind of hot pepper, since most hot peppers are almost solely used for hotness and don't have much taste. You just need to adjust the quantities a bit so it would be as hot as you like it to be.

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It depends whether you're using just the seeds/veins, just the flesh or the entire pepper. The seeds and veins have the majority of the heat, and relatively little of the flavor, while the flesh is the opposite. – GalacticCowboy Jul 22 '10 at 20:37

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