Squeal like a Pig

Bug saw a recipe online for a dish he had at Asia Cuisine a few weeks ago, jae yook bokum. I loved what I sampled from his plate that I told him I'd order it the next time we were there.

This is the recipe he used from My Korean Kitchen:

Marinatied Pork Stir Fry with Gochujang sauce
Jeyuk-bokkeum

Ingredients for this meals are (for 2 people)

For Marinating Pork

-Getting rid of smells
Pork 360g -You can use Neck bone meat (”Mok sal” in Korean) or Bacon slices from the Belly (”Samgyeopsal” in Korean)
Refined rice wine 15 ml
Pepper 2 Sprinkles
Soak the Pork in cold water for about 20-30 minutes to get rid of the blood.
Cut the meat into about mouthful size pieces.
Put the meat in a big bowl and add refined rice wine and pepper. (mix and leave it for about 30 minutes)

-Making Gochujang sauce
Gochujang 2 tbsp
Soy sauce 1 tbsp
Sugar 2 tsp
Chili powder 1 sprinkle
Ginger powder 1/2 tsp
Finely chopped garlic (one medium size)
Plum Extract 15 ml -This is good for getting rid of oily tastes of the meat. You can buy it at the local super market. However it is very expensive, so you don’t have to use it, though it makes a very big difference in the meal I noticed.
Get a bowl ready. Pour in all the ingredients I mentioned above.
Mix them well. Then add this on to the meat.

For side vegetables
1/5 of a medium cabbage (If you use too much of this, it will make too much water in the wok.)
5 Sesame leaves
1/2 a medium onion
1/2 a medium carrot
1 stalk of big spring onion

-Preparation
Thin slice the cabbage, onion, and carrot.
Slice the sesame leaves and spring onion.
Put all these vegetables into the meat bowl (with the meat).
Mix them throughly.

-Cooking-
Pre-heat the wok for about 20 seconds.
Put some olive oil in the wok.
Add the veggies and meat mix.
Stir them and cook it thoroughly.
Serve it on the plate.


Bug had to change a few things because we didn't have everything. Also, we quadrupled the recipe, if that says anything about our appetites! Actually, we wanted it to last, so this wasn't downed in a single sitting! I'm eating it right now while I'm on my lunch break, along with some kim chee and namul.

Substitutions:
- meat: we ended up buying pork loin
- refined rice wine: we assumed this was the same as Japanese sake and cracked open our 47 Ronin tokkuri of Gekkeikan sake
- ginger: used fresh ginger
- oil: used vegetable oil

Omissions:
- plum extract: We were kind of SoL on this one. We couldn't find this on our own and no one understood me when I asked.
- onions
- cabbage
- sesame leaves


What a delicious dinner!

What could have made this superb dish flawless would possibly be halving the amount of sugar. This preparation was a little too sweet for my palate.

I can't wait to get home after work to have more! Yummy!

- Cassaendra