I was surprised to learn that bossam actually refers to how the meat is enjoyed: wrapped in cabbage leaves and served with various condiments. But conventionally, bossam is primarily associated with thinly sliced boiled pork. Bossam is quite possibly one of the most satisfying dishes of all time, and it's remarkably easy to make! Traditionally, it's commonly eaten with the inner tender leaves of napa cabbage; I personally prefer lettuce + perilla leaves and would be happy skipping the napa cabbage altogether. The salted shrimp might seem strange, but it's a must! It goes so well with it. Great for large group gatherings; this is pretty much infinitely scalable. I personally prefer to enjoy bossam with pork (either butt or belly, or both), scallion salad, lettuce + perilla, ssamjang, salted shrimp, rice, and spicy radish kimchi.
Active Time: 30 min
Total Time: 4 hr
cooking the pork
> pork (~3 lb, belly or butt)
> onion (1/4, roughly chopped)
> scallions (~3 stalks, roughly chopped)
> garlic cloves (8 cloves, lightly smashed)
> ginger (1 inch, thinly sliced)
> black peppercorns (1 tsp)
> doenjang (1.5 tbsp)
> instant coffee (1 tsp)
> salt (1 tsp)
> bay leaves (2)
> water to cover the pork (~7-8 cups)
putting everything together:
> lettuce
> perilla leaves
> napa cabbage
> salted shrimp
> ssamjang
> (optional) radish salad
> (optional) scallion salad
1. First prepare the napa cabbage leaves, if using. Take the tender inner leaves of a napa cabbage and submerge in a brine with ~1/2 cup of salt and ~4 cups of water. Add more water as needed to keep the cabbage submerged. Brine for ~2-4h, or until leaves are softened. Rinse and drain well.
2. Cook the pork. Add all the ingredients to a pot, and add water until everything is fullly covered. Bring to a boil and cook for ~5m, then bring down to a simmer and continue to cook, covered, until the pork is very tender, ~1h. Let cool / sit in the braising liquid until ready to serve.
3. Slice the pork into thin slices.
4. Arrange and serve with accompaniments: lettuce, perilla leaves, napa cabbage, salted shrimp, ssamjang, radish salad, scallion salad, etc. Enjoy as wraps (or even by itself!)
> You'll want to enjoy the pork warm, but it'll also be pretty difficult to slice if you slice it when it's still hot.
> The instant coffee looks a little weird, but it honestly doesn't really infuse any coffee flavor into the dish. And it gives it a nice, appealing, more brown-ish exterior, which is cool.
> I don't have doenjang, so I just added ssamjang instead. Everything turned out just fine.
> At a pork rice restaurant in Busan called "miryang sundae-dwaeji-gukbap", they served boiled pork belly slices + sundae with an interesting, yellow dipping sauce. It seemed to be a mixture of vinegar + mustard with some sugar, but I couldn't exactly tell. I would love to try recreating this at some point.
> Scallion salad recipe: http://www.brianxie.me/cookbook/scallion-salad/