This one is epic. Korean pork bone soup or gamjatang is an all day affair. Rainy day cooking. Hurry up and wait as it simmers away. But when it’s ready. What a great dinner on a rainy or cold winter night.
Gamjatang is pork bone soup that eats like a meal
It’s called pork bone soup but it’s more of a stew. Spicy, rich and delicious. Tender pork. Potatoes. Pork stock. Korean flavours. Tons of umami. Crazy good.
It’s really no different than making stew. There’s meat and potatoes and stock. Where it’s different is the seasonings. That is pure Korean.
Gochujang is like spicy miso
It’s a long list of ingredients. And they aren’t easy to find. Gochujang, gochugaru and doenjang you should be able to find pretty easily.
Gochujang is worth seeking out on it’s own. It’s used in a lot of Korean cooking. It’s like miso. Sort of. But with kick. Miso with Korean chili.
You can use it any time you want to add a little heat and Korean taste to a dish. Have you tried gochujang mayo yet?
Perilla leaves and perilla powder are tougher. But you can leave them out. Use chicken stock instead of making pork stock.
I’m not saying it will be the same I you don’t make make pork stock though. Gamjatang is a pork soup. Pork. More pork flavour is better pork flavour.
korean pork bone soup - gamjatang
Ingredients
The stock
- 3 lbs pork neck bones - cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (talk to your butcher). You need 3 lbs for the stock and 3 lbs for the soup.
- 2 Tbsp doenjang
- 3 green onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 8 cups water
The spice mix
- 2 Tbsp gochujang
- 1 Tbsp gochugaru - plus 2 more teaspoons if you like spicy
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2-3 big cloves of garlic - crushed
- 1 tsp coarse ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp wild sesame seed powder - deulkkae-garu - this is not easy to find but you can leave it out
The soup
- 3 lbs pork neck bones - cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (really, talk to your butcher), in all
- 1 2 lb pork hock - cut in 6 pieces (again - your butcher is key)
- 3 Yukon gold potatoes - cut in quarters
- 8 perilla leaves - roughly torn (you can substitute shiso leaves or just leave them out)
- 1 lb young napa cabbage or the inner leaves of an bigger one
- 6 green onions - cut into 2 inch pieces
Drizzling sauce
- 3 Tbsp soy
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp wasabi
- 1/2 tsp asian mustard - e.g. Japanese prepared mustard
Instructions
Make the stock
- You should have 6 or so lbs of pork neck bones in total. Some will be meatier than others. Keep those for the soup. You will need to blanch and rinse all the pork so you might as well do it all up front.
- Put all the pork into a pot large enough to hold it all and cover with cold water.
- Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 5 minutes. You will see a mess of scum form. Don’t worry. Down the drain it goes.
- Rinse the pork well with cold running water. Set 3 lbs of meaty pork bones aside.
- Place 3 lbs of the pork neck bones (pick the ones with less meat) into a pot and add the water along with the green onion and 2 whole cloves of garlic.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover loosely and simmer for 4-5 hours. Longer is better if you have the time.
- Strain the stock into a clean pot large enough to hold the remaining pork, potatoes and cabbage. You should have about 5-6 cups. If you have less, add water to get to 6 cups.
The spice mix
- Combine all the ingredients listed in the spice mix section in the ingredients together. Set aside.
The drizzling sauce
- Combine all the ingredients in the drizzling sauce ingredient list. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the mustard and wasabi are evenly distributed. Set aside.
The soup
- Mix 2 Tbsp doenjang with a bit of stock to dilute. Add the reserved pork neck bones and pork hock along thinned doenjang to the pot.
- Simmer 90 minutes.
- While the soup simmers, bring a pot of water large enough to hold all the cabbage to boil. Blanch the cabbage for 90 seconds. Remove the cabbage from the pot (use tongs) and cool under cold running water. Cut the cabbage into large bite size pieces.
- After 90 minutes, thin the spice mix with a bit of stock and add it to the soup.
- Add the potatoes and cabbage, being careful to submerge the potatoes.
- Simmer until the potatoes are tender, around 30-40 minutes.
- Add the green onions and simmer 3-4 minutes more.
- Serve in bowls with a couple teaspoons of the drizzling sauce overtop. Garnish with green onion and sliced red chilies.
Nutrition
If you love ribs you need to try Thai ribs with hot and sweet dipping sauce. Big bold Thai flavours. These are ribs that will make you wonder why you ever thought ribs need BBQ sauce.
I love pork. I love pork ribs. Low and slow BBQ ribs are a wonderful thing. But they aren’t the only thing. That’s what I don’t get.
Thai ribs are a great way to mix things up
Why limit yourself? Do you know more than one way to cook chicken? Is there only one way to prepare fish? And yet when you think about ribs you only go to one place? How does that make any sense?
This is different. Thai flavours. Dipping sauce instead of BBQ sauce. Grilled, not smoked. But the result. Delicious ribs. Something new. Something good.
The dipping sauce is a mix of hot from chili flakes and sambal oelek. Don’t know sambal oelek? It’s a better sriracha. Try it. Or don’t. It’s optional. A little rice vinegar for tang and sugar for sweet. Simple. But unexpected.
The ribs get what amounts to a wet rub treatment. Big south East Asian flavours. Bold but not overpowering. A little cilantro. Some fish sauce. Garlic. A bit of chili.
And a good dose of coarse black pepper. I like butcher’s grind if you can get it. Awesome here. And awesome for classic Texas BBQ. Just works.
Internal temperature is how you make perfect ribs every time
The only other thing to think about is internal temperature. BBQ – any BBQ – is about getting the meat to the point where the collagen melts and everything gets moist.
Fall short and the meat is overcooked. Overshoot and you lose the magic of the collagen. Nail it and everything works. Get an instant read thermometer. The pros use them. There’s a reason. Its cooking science.
These are not the famous Pok Pok ribs. Those ribs are crazy good too. But you really need a smoker to pull them off. These are easier. Faster. And they are still wicked good.
I’m not saying these ribs will make you forget about good BBQ. That’s just crazy talk. But these Thai ribs will make you want to eat more ribs. And what’s wrong with that? Nothing. Nothing at all…
