Korea – Gopchang Gui (곱창구이)

by Evelyn Brutz (edited by Finmail)

Gui is known to be the GRILL ITEM. Anything grill over the girl pan, over the smoked barbeque, is placed in the Gui Category of the Korean cuisine. Grill items can be meat, vegetables, organs of animals, Seafood, lentils, rice, etc. Gopchang is the grill dish of the Large and Small intestine of any animal eaten in Korea, most probably, Cow, Goat, Pig, Lamb, Buffaloes, Cattles, etc. Grilling can be over the charcoal for barbeque flavor or over direct heat, and also be pan-fried on the grill pan.

Gopchang-GUI (곱창구이) is the “grilled intestines” could be small intestine and large intestine. This can be cut into small pieces like a bite-sized piece. But it is also be served as large pieces and served with other items. This is mixed meat and vegetable dish has different flavors by adding spices and herbs. Some sauces like soya sauce, mirin is also added for moisture and good flavor. Vegetables like scallions, carrots, peas, corns, mushrooms are marinated with the same spices as the intestine and grill together with meat to serve along with them.

This is served with steamed rice, stew, soups, which can be added into the stir-fried rice for the new taste and new element for the dish. It can also be part of the spicy noodles soups, beef stew, etc.

GUI/GUEE FOOD

Gui is the grilled dish. It could be anything grilled like vegetables, seafood, and any other meat form. Spices, sauces, condiments are added into the main grilled item for marination and then they used to be grilled over different techniques. The grilling can be done by using different techniques. Most of the time, meat and seafood items are grilled and used as the dish in Korean dishes. There are many dishes that are grilled and then added into the other recipe or dish for the new combination and origin of a new dish.

The word Gui is derived from the other word, gupda (굽다), which means “To grill”.

This is also served as the Banchan because this also is used to cook with the rice bowl. There is some new variety of the dish in which rice bowl is served with the grilled intestine. These are sometimes cooked by wrapping up bamboo leaves, lettuce leaves, etc. There is also a very famous dish, GALBI that is a grilled meat-based dish.

TYPES OF GUI

MEAT BASED GUI

The meat-based grilled food items of Korean cuisine is known as GOGI GUI (고기구이). There are a few types of meat-based grilled Korean food items that are collectively called Gogi GUI :

BULGOGI/ 불고기 :

Bulgogi is purely a beef dish, that is basically a lump of shredded meat. Bulgogi means SPICY MEAT or FIRE MEAT. There are most of the spicy spices added to make it fire meat. Bulgogi is also cooked by chicken and seafood mostly Squid. There is some sauce also added soya sauce, mirin, vinegar, sesame oil, etc.

SAMGYEOPSAL/ 삼겹살 :

This is the meat cut from pork belly. This is consumed as the Bacon piece. These are grilled with salt and pepper. There are some vegetables like garlic and onions that are also grilled with pork belly slices. To lock the moisture, these are wrapped with the lettuce leaves and then grilled. This is the way to make it soft and juicy.

DAKGUI/ 닭구이 :

This dish is cooked by using chicken. Chicken can be consumed in any form, either small chicken pieces, Chicken thighs, Chicken whole grilled soups, etc.

VEGETABLES AND MUSHROOMS

DUBU GUI/ 두부구이 :

Tofu is known as Beans curd. These are the ingredients used in many Korean dishes. These are added as the main ingredient and also be added as the grilled item for any other dish. This dish is cooked with tofu. Tofu is marinated and cut into a triangular shape to grill them. Grilling in the grilling pan is appropriate for the tofu because it is very soft and juicy.

BEOSEOT GUI/ 버섯구이

These are grilled Mushrooms. Some marination and good to grill. These are also served with beef grilled and chicken grilled dishes.

HISTORY OF KOREAN CUISINE

There are different periods of time of Korean cuisine. The history of Korean cuisine starts from the Three kingdom period and ends with the Joseon period followed by the Modern era.

DURING THE THREE KINGDOM PERIOD :

The three kingdom period is from 57 BCE to 668 CE. This is the beginning of Korean cuisine. There are very ancient and old traditional cooking methods and skills. They had there several modes of cooking and consumption of unique ingredients that aren’t consumed today. Like Baekje, these were fermented old items with a slimy texture. But the origin of KIMCHI is also from the Three kingdom period that is even consumed nowadays.

DURING GORYEO PERIOD :

In the 13th century, when the Mongols have invaded the Korean territory. There were a few changes in the Korean cuisine that are still unutilized :

• Noodles dishes
• Use of black pepper
• Dumpling dishes
• Mandu dish

DURING JOSEON PERIOD :

During the 15th century, the agricultural book was compiled by King SEJONG. The book has literally means “Straight Talk on Farming“. The use of crops like Maize, Squash, peanuts, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chili pepper, etc.

FAMOUS FOOD OF MODERN KOREAN CUISINE :

• Soups and stews
• Kimchi
• Noodles
• Banchan
• Anju
• Beverages

HEALTHY BENEFITS OF HAVING AGE-GUI

• This food is rich in Iron
• This food is rich in vitamins
• It is a good source of protien and carbohydrates
• It is good for healthy muscles and bones.
• It boosts up the immunity of body
• It helps in Improve weak health
• It helps to deal with the postpartum depression
• It is rich in Zinc
• This food is given in the diseases like Anemia for iron deficiency
• It can be serve as natural vitamins and supplements

NUTRITION

• 230 calories
• 23 g of Carbohydrates
• 15 g of fat
• 36 g of protein
• 3.0 g dietary fiber
• 1.2 g sugars

COOKING TECHNIQUES FOR GUI FOOD/ GRILLING

DIRECT COOKING :

Direct grilling is like putting food into the fire. Grilling is done by using the stand used to place it over the fire and just put on some meat, vegetables over it for cooking. The stand is sold in the market, made up of metal, and be used to place it over the fire on the stove. Any ingredients you want to grill.

INDIRECT COOKING :

This is basically a technique to make anything cooked by indirect heat. Like we need to wrap the main element into some wraps. There are different ways to cook anything by indirect heat.

• Wrapping the main component of the dish into wraps mostly, lettuce leaves, bamboo leaves, any utensils, etc.
• Using any utensils to make it cook.

CHARCOAL COOKING :

Charcoal is also indirect heating and cooking. This is also known as BARBEQUE. This is used to cook Kebabs, tikka, any smoked vegetable, etc. This is the way to make any element have a smoky flavor and burnt effect.

INGREDIENTS

• Pork tripe / small intestine : 500 grams
• Soy sauce : 1/2 cup
• Mirin : 4 tbsp
• Sesame oil : 4 tbsp
• Lemon juice : 1/4 cup
• Ddoenjang : 1 cup
• Ginger juice : 1/3 cup
• Salt : 1 tsp
• Saewoo jeot : 2 tbsp
• Honey : 4 tbsp
• Cheongyang : 4

METHOD OF COOKING

• Make a marination of sauce and spices into a mixing bowl.
• Add soya sauce, vinegar, ginger juice, etc with all the wet ingredients into the bowl.
• Then add all the spices, honey and mix them well until the unanimous mixture is formed.
• The mixture formed should be lump free.
• Now add the pork tripe into the marinatin bowl and leave it for good marination.
• The marination should be 30 minutes or more.
• Now take a grill stand and heat up the charcoal for cooking.
• Cook pork tripe by barbeque and make it colored from both sides.
• Serve it with grilled vegetables, etc.