We are in a time of life where sauces come from a jar. Starting to get back to doing my own marinara, but that is 50/50. Same with jam. Salads I usually do my own dressings for. Stir fries and curries are generally from scratch - and I’d say I do more of my own spice mixes like cajun, old bay (didn’t love it won’t repeat), chili.
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I went and looked it up! Tinga. It was good and not searingly hot. Would make again.
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Yes! This is the recipe I use, but there are others (with differences) online:
1/3 c. gochujang paste
1Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp sesame oil
Shake in a jar, refrigerate indefinitely. If it gets a little thick in the fridge I add a bit (very small) amount of hot water and shake to thin. This recipe is hotter than the Mother-in-Law’s brand gochujang (which is the only one sold in the mainstream grocery here and is “ok”) but probably not as hot as some brands from an Asian market.
The original recipe called for rice wine vinegar but don’t always have it on hand, and I always have seasoned rice vinegar, so I use that and it works well (bit of a different flavor) - regular rice vinegar or even mild apple cider vinegar might work in a pinch. I crush garlic because I can’t be faffed to mince it. The only really specialty ingredient you need is gochujang paste, which is sold in red tubs, and which can live indefinitely in the back of your fridge once you open it:
If you can’t find it locally you can order online, that’s what I had to do last time. Buy a little one to start, and once it has caught you in its delicious snare, spring for a big tub (more cost effective if you know you are going to use it, and it lasts forever in the fridge, seriously).
I love this sauce especially on dolsot bibimbap (my favorite all time Korean “dish”, I love it so much I bought a set of bowls), and it’s also really good on potatoes - I’ll use it in favor of ketchup if I have it made. The above recipe doesn’t make a ton, so I usually double it, though I probably should quadruple it I love it so much 
. Seriously, it is my favorite of all the different kinds of hot sauce, and the homemade is way cheaper to make than buy the premade!
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DIY chicken Tinga here
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Seasoned rice vnegar? Never heard of it, Ill have to look. Thanks!
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You can totally make it homemade it’s just basically plain rice vinegar with sugar and salt added (it is used for sushi rice and I use it to make gyoza dipping sauce also). I use a lot of it so I buy the already seasoned stuff 
. I buy this one when I see it, but any will do!
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Thank you for the recipe! Alas, it has more sugar than I like to eat. I actually was thinking of the gochujang paste you use to make the sauce. Adding the paste directly to dishes is delicious.
The only sauce that I make myself (or even use, apparently) is a simple Gyoza/Dumpling Dipping Sauce.
Soy Sauce: 1 1/2 Tablespoons
Rice Vinegar: 1 Tablespoon
Ichimi Tougarashi: to taste (Optional)
Hot Pepper Oil: Several Drops to taste (Optional)
Ichimi Tougarashi apparently translates to Red Chili Pepper
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Someone above was talking about using their Hurricane stash. Does anyone do this regularly? Do you use your emergcy foods all at once or by category or type or?
Is using whatever emergency food stash regularly part of your planning?
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Thanks!
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I LOVE chicken tinga 
Ah, gochujang paste is fermented, so I don’t think I’d make it at home unless I was really dedicated! I’m sure you could use less sugar, it would be a lot sharper though!
I used to have a container of shichimi togarashi, excellent stuff! I don’t live near an Asian market now so I have to order everything online and haven’t had it in a while. 
I would use it in place of regular hot chili flakes (on potatoes, pasta, pizza), the type of pepper used must be different as the flavor is different from our bog standard chili flakes.
My gyoza dipping sauce is:
soy sauce
seasoned rice vinegar (because of course)
pinch of brown sugar (must be brown, otherwise don’t bother)
red pepper flakes (shichimi togarashi check!)
crushed garlic
ginger shredded (if I have any)
dash of sesame oil
dash of hot pepper oil (if I have any)
mirin (just a tiny touch, sometimes)
I don’t measure, I just eyeball it
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I keep a big pantry and rotate regularly (new purchases happen when I have one or two left, and they get put away on the back of the shelf so that we grab the older purchases first). I don’t really have a separate emergency supply, but we’d be fine for a couple of months without a grocery trip (though we might get bored!) I find it’s easier for me than thinking through a specific emergency supply, and the rotation works fine as long as I but stuff I know we’ll use. One-off items can be a problem, but they were a problem before I started with a pantry.
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Thanks for the reply! You made me realize I had posted the wrong photo, although shichimi is great, too!
Wow, your dipping sauce is so fancy!
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My stash is not hurricane… maybe ice storm power outage? Or whatever. And yes, we rotate through the backstock, and occasionally donate something like tinned pasta that my partner wants in the emergency stash but never eats. We also will use it camping.
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I had another thought - if it’s the flavor of the Korean pepper that you like, you might want to look for gochugaru, which is the pepper used for gochujang. You can buy it as flakes or powder, but it can be a little hard to tell the difference online, because sometimes packaging will say like “red pepper powder” but is actually flakes. Gochugaru flakes is used to make kimchi, which is also way cheaper here to make than buy (and quite easy). The big package of flakes I ordered last time actually says they are bitggalchan pepper, which I have to assume is very similar(???). This brand and package I bought last time I got as a recommendation of a Korean food blog, so I assume it is a decent one.
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Yes! Mine is a working pantry so we eventually eat everything.
I LOVE THAT. I have a lot of it, haha, bulk purchase.
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This discussion has prompted me to look up homemade shichimi togarashi since it is a blend, lol.
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You should make it for sure! I use it alllll the time.
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We keep emergency food as part of our rotations. Ie, I always keep a higher par of peanut butter and tuna than I would otherwise. Foods that can be eaten cold like those, and ones that are easy to prep on our camp stove (jarred spag sauce, for example). Obviously never run a camp stove indoors!
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When we lived in Florida, our Hurricane pantry supplies were pretty much the same as our current blizzard pantry supplies - what are you going to eat if the power is out for a few days? Canned soup, tuna, cereal, crackers, pb, canned peaches.
Like everything in my pantry at this point, if I use a can of peaches, I replace it on my next shopping trip.
What we did keep separately for hurricanes was batteries and flashlights and first aid supplies, but honestly my household is better stocked with that kind of stuff now all the time.
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