Korean Style Roast Pork

 

This is how my Korean style roast pork looked like

With the long weekend coming celebrating Canada Day I felt like having bbq. But we don't have a barbecue set right now. And we don't know the future of our living arrangement so we decided a barbecue set is not worth a purchase right now.

So I looked around and came across a barbecue recipe from Sue (My Korean Kitchen) and it's condiment. I love the side dishes that she featured on her recipe but her recipe called for a 4-6 hour oven cooking. I am not ready to commit such a lengthy time. So I looked around some more and found another recipe by Judy Joo (Korean Food Made Simple).



The recipe below is adapted from both recipes. I used a pork shoulder with bone-in and boiled it with the spices for one hour. This process cut down the oven time a lot and guarantee the pork to be fully cooked. Both recipes called for gochujang (Korean red pepper paste). I'm avoiding gochujang right now due to my diet (long story....) so I substituted it with miso paste and gochugaru (red pepper flakes) when possible.

Pork shoulder in the pot with all the cooking liquid ingredients

Ingredients :
1 piece (about 3 lbs/1.5 kg) pork shoulder
1 bunch of lettuce (red leaf/butterhead/romaine - pick your fave)
some green onion salad (see recipe below)
some samgyeopsal sauce (see recipe below)

Cooking liquid :
8 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed
4-5 green onion, cut into 2-3 inches long pieces
About 1 inch of ginger, peeled, sliced
1 medium size onion, cut into 8 pieces
2 tbs miso paste

Rub :
2 tbs miso paste
2 tbs honey
1 1/2 tbs grated ginger
1 ts gochugaru
2 ts sugar

Green onion salad :
1 bunch of green onion, cut about 2 inches long and thinly sliced. Soak about 10 minutes in a bowl of cold water. This is reduce the spiciness of the green onion. Drain well. Use a salad spinner if you have one.

Samgyeopsal sauce :
1/4 c doenjang, 2 tbs gochujang, 2 ts honey, 1 stalk green onion (minced), 1 clove garlic (pound to paste), 1 ts sesame oil and 1 ts roasted sesame seeds. Mix well. Set aside.

Method :

Soak the pork shoulder in cold water for at least 10 hours and make sure to change the water every 3-4 hours. This process will draw the blood out of the pork and will make it less gamey.

When time comes, put the pork shoulder in a pot big enough to contain the pork and fill up with enough water to cover the pork. Put all the ingredients under boiling liquid to be boiled along with the pork. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower to medium heat to let it simmer.

While the pork is simmering, prepare the rub by mixing all the ingredients well. Set it aside.

After 30 minutes turn the pork around and continue to let it simmer. If the heat is not enough to simmer, bring it to high until it's reboiling then lower it again to simmer. 

After the second 30 minutes ( by now the pork has been boiled for 1 hour) turn off the heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. If you have a grid, use it on top of a regular oven tray. Make sure to line your oven tray with aluminum foil for easier cleaning. I find using the grid will make the baking process closer to the bbq experience.

Take the pork out of the pot. Be very careful while handling the pork because it's still pretty hot. Place the pork down with the fatty portion facing up (if any). Cover the pork with the rub. Place it in the preheated oven and set it for 45 minutes.

The rub will make the pork easier to burn so keep an eye on it after 30 minutes. Mine got pretty black though not burnt after 30 minutes.

Once it's all nicely browned, take it out of the oven and let it cool off a bit. I waited about 10 minutes before transferring it to a cutting board. Use a serrated knife to slice the pork thinly and serve it with the condiments.

I learned how the Koreans eat this from watching tons of Korean dramas. Take a piece of lettuce, place one (or two) piece of meat, a few strands of green onion salad and some sampgyeopsal sauce. Wrap the lettuce and place it in your mouth.

Enjoy !

This is how I ate the roast pork - Korean style.

kimchi salad - based on recipe from Sue (My Korean Kitchen)

Spicy Korean coleslaw - based on recipe from Sue (My Korean Kitchen)