Posts By Martin

Bossam Leftovers: Pork and Vegetable Udon

On May 21, 2025 0 Comments - Cooking

Bossam Part 2:

Earlier I put up a recipe for a simple bossam. Towards the end, I mentioned that if you go easy on the salt in the braising liquid, you can use it to make another delicious pork dish. This is what I have done with the leftover braising liquid from that recipe: Pork and Vegetable Udon. This recipe made one huge portion but could very easily make 2 portions by adding more noodles.

Ingredients:

  • Leftover braising liquid from Bossam recipe
  • Leftover pork meat (if any) thin slices
  • 1/2 onion sliced thin (the other half of the onion from the Bossam recipe)
  • 3 cloves garlic sliced thin
  • 2 green onions/scallions chopped
  • 1 fresh green chilli pepper sliced into thin rounds
  • 1/2 zucchini sliced thin
  • 1/2 package of enoki mushrooms
  • 1 cup green cabbage sliced thin
  • 1 or 2 portions frozen udon noodles

I am using vegetables that I have in my refrigerator at the moment. You can substitute just about any vegetable you would normally put in a soup. You can use different mushrooms too. Different noodles could work as well. I like these Udon noodles. I usually find them at the neighbourhood Asian grocery store in the freezer section. They are convenient because they are frozen in single portions. If you don’t have leftover pork meat, don’t worry. The braising liquid has plenty of delicious pork flavour on it’s own. Sub in some extra mushrooms. I had enokis on hand but sliced king oyster mushrooms are even better!

Process

Bossam leftover liquid and pork meat
This is my leftover meat and braising liquid from bossam pork which I stored in the fridge overnight. Before you start, remove the hard fat layer and toss it out. Make sure to strain out all the solids as well.
Warming up leftover pork in braising liquid
Warm up the leftover pork in the liquid.
Raw vegetables and udon noodles for Pork and Vegetable Udon dish
Raw vegetables and frozen noodles. In the end, I could only fit one portion of noodles in the pot I was using.
All vegetables thinly sliced on a red cutting board
Thin slice onion, cabbage, garlic, zucchini, chilli pepper and green onion. Pull apart enokis into smaller bunches.
Cooking onion and garlic in black stoneware pot
Cook onion, garlic and white part of green onions in a bit of olive oil until soft and translucent.
Adding cabbage and chiles to the pot
Add the cabbage and chiles. Cook until soft. You can even brown the cabbage a little for some extra sweetness.
Enoki mushrooms and sliced zucchini go in the pot
Layer in the zucchini and enoki mushrooms.
ladling warm braising liquid over the cooking vegetables for the Pork and Vegetable Udon
Ladle in the warm leftover braising liquid until everything is covered. Leave some room for noodles later.
Like this….
Simmering the Pork and Vegetable Udon
Simmer for 5 minutes or so until all the vegetables are cooked through. Now is a good time to check the seasoning. Add salt if you like. Mine was ok without extra salt.
Adding in one frozen portion of udon noodles to the pot
Drop in the frozen udon noodles. Sink them in the broth and let them cook for 2 minutes or so. The package says to cook them in their own pot of boiling water but I find that this works fine and makes less of a mess.
This is the finished dish: pork and vegetable udon
If you have leftover pork from the original recipe, slice it thin and layer it on top. Add the fresh green onion tops.

This took almost no time at all…

I think this probably took around 15 minutes to make. The leftover braising liquid from the bossam recipe is a perfect, rich and complex broth to cook vegetables and noodles in. This was a delicious meal that used up every last leftover from the previous night.

If you have any questions, comments or other ideas please leave them below. I always look forward to hearing from you.

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Bossam Braised Pork Belly

On May 19, 2025 0 Comments - Cooking

This is a very basic version of bossam. The main event here is the meat. Fresh pork belly is braised in a liquid made with strong aromatics to flavour the meat and to soften some of the gamey aroma of the pork.

It can be served with kimchi and various sides, wrapped in a leaf of cabbage, perilla or lettuce.

There are a couple of good recipes here and here which include all the components for a more traditional Korean preparation with pickled Napa cabbage leaves and spicy shredded radish. This is a delicious way to eat it but I am going to do something a little different with things I already have in the refrigerator.

Ingredients for Braised Pork

  • 1 kg (around 2.5lb) pork belly
  • 1 small chunk (25gr) fresh ginger sliced
  • 12 garlic cloves roughly chopped
  • 1/2 onion
  • 2 green onions roughly chopped
  • 30ml / 2 tablespoons doenjang
  • 15ml / 1 tablespoon instant coffee
  • 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
  • 1.5 litres / 6 cups water

Other Ingredients:

Once the pork is done, you will need something leafy to wrap it in. You may also want to add other fillings to your pork wraps. This can be anything from kimchi to fresh crunchy veggies. Sometimes I even like a little bit of nice mustard in them. This time around, I will use:

  • red leaf lettuce, washed, dried and separated into leaves
  • perilla leaf (kkaennip) washed and dried
  • napa cabbage kimchi
  • Korean radish kimchi or (kkakdugi)
  • pan fried anchovies with peanuts (myeolchi bokkeum)

Process

ingredients for bossam braised pork belly
Raw ingredients
aromatics in pot for bossam
Place onion, ginger, garlic, coffee, doenjang, green onion and peppercorns in pot
adding water to aromatics
Add 1.5 litres of water
Stir well and bring to boil
cooking aromatics in water for 10 minutes
After it boils, cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 10-15 minutes covered
adding pork to the braising liquid for bossam
Add pork belly
showing how pork belly should be covered
Make sure there is enough water to fully cover the meat.
Simmer covered for around 1 hour or until pork is tender. Make sure to cover it so the liquid doesn’t reduce too much.
Cool to room temperature. Taste the broth. This one is very good, not too salty to reuse for another meal.
Slice thinly with a sharp knife. Taste a piece and if it needs salt, you can add a little now. This tastes salty enough so I will leave it as it is.

Serving

Serve the pork slices with sides of your choice and leaves to wrap it with.

I am using red leaf lettuce and perilla leaves, kimchi and myeolchi bokkeum…and a bit of Czech mustard : )
Perfect bite

What about the leftover braising liquid?

Store any leftover meat in the braising liquid. Reheat it covered in the liquid as well.

The first time I made this, I noticed that the leftover braising liquid is actually very tasty. You can’t really notice the coffee as a distinct flavour. The liquid is just a warm and delicious pork and doenjang flavour. The only problem is that it is a little too salty.

The next time I made it, I decided to remove extra salt from the recipe, using doenjang only as the main seasoning. The meat is still delicious and can be salted a little after cooking if you think it needs it. But, keep in mind, you are also eating this with kimchi or maybe salted shrimp or other well seasoned add ons so very salty meat is not so necessary.

Once you reduce the salt, you are left with a delicious pork soup base. When the meal is done, I usually strain out all the solids and refrigerate it. The next day I combine it with shredded cabbage, the other half of the onion, mushrooms and frozen udon noodles, a little of the leftover pork and chopped scallions. It is surprisingly delicious! Find that recipe here.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Look forward to hearing from you.

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Beef Bone Broth Version 1: Low and Slow

On May 18, 2025 0 Comments - Cooking

Broth vs Stock

I am calling this a “Beef Bone Broth” only because it seems to be the name that everyone is using these days. It makes a perfect base liquid for any number of soup or sauce recipes although it also has many other uses.

In professional cooking, a “broth” is a usually a lighter, thinner, and often salted liquid made by boiling vegetables and/or meat for a relatively short time. A “stock”, in contrast, is made from bones and their connective tissue, simmered for a very long time, sometimes with vegetables and aromatics, usually without salt. A broth is a thin and flavourful liquid while a stock is a thick, gelatinous and relatively flavourless liquid (until it is seasoned).

So..as you will see, what we are making here is nothing like a broth. It is a very simple beef stock.

Long, Low and Slow vs Hard and Fast

This recipe is for a long, low and slow method that cooks until the bones have nothing left to give. The end result is a mostly clear, slightly brown stock. It is thick and gelatinous, even slightly sticky. If you added mirepoix (say onions, celery, carrot) to this later in the process, you would end up with something like a Western white veal/beef stock.

The second one (click here for other version) is a hard boil and relatively fast stock (for beef bones). It will still take several hours but, it will result in a milky white broth with a nutty flavour and slightly thinner consistency. This is what you will often see in Seolleongtang or Mandu Guk (dumpling soup) in Korean restaurants.

Ingredients

You can make this as large or small as you like. I have made a recipe that fits into my biggest stock pot which holds around 12 litres / 3 gallons. Just make sure that the pot is big enough to keep bones submerged plus a little water on top.

  • 4 kg / 8lb cut beef hip bones (this is usually a mix of marrow bones and knuckle bones)
  • 1.5 kg / 3lb cut cow foot
  • fresh cold water to cover them

My local Korean grocer keeps bags of cut beef bones in the freezer section all the time. And, there is a butcher near me that usually has frozen whole cow feet as well. Any butcher shop should be able to get you beef hip bones for stock. The cow foot is optional but it is made of of mostly connective tissue and this will add body and richness to your finished stock. If you can’t get cow foot, just omit or replace with regular hip bones.

Process

Wash and Soak

Beef hip bones for beef bone broth
Beef bones cut into chunks for stock. There is a mix of marrow bone and knuckles (hip joint)
chopped cow foot for beef bone broth
Cow foot cut into pieces will add body to the finished stock
washing bones
Cover bones with fresh cold water
soaking bones
Soak for a minimum of 8 hours. I left mine in the fridge overnight.
showing blood leaching out of soaked bones
Fairly soon, the bones will start to release blood into the soaking water. If you can, change the water a few times.
refreshing water for bone soaking
Pour old water off and refresh as many times as possible. If you are unable to change the water, it’s ok..the impurities will also cook out in the simmering stock.

Initial Boil (blanching)

clean soaked bones ready to make beef bone broth
Clean bones ready for blanching.
Cover with cold water
blanching bones to remove residual fat and blood
Bring to a hard boil for 10 minutes or so. During this time, the bones will release fat and blood.
shows raft of congealed beef blood
This is a raft of congealed blood floating on top
washing blanched bones with fresh water in sink
After this initial 10 minute boil, dump out the bones and wash them with cold water. Ged rid of the water from the first boil. Wash the stock pot thoroughly.

Simmering the stock

Return the clean bones to the clean pot and cover with fresh cold water.
All the bones should be completely submerged
Simmering: This is what a simmer looks like. The water is bubbling a little and definitely moving around the bones. It is not boiling hard and it is not still. This simmer is important to extract the nutrients and flavour from the bones.
bones simmering under glass cover of pot
Cover your pot and watch it for a little while. You will most likely have to adjust the temperature down to keep the simmer going without overflowing the pot.
skimming fat from cooking beef bone broth
Once every hour or two, I like to skim off the fat layer that floats on top of the stock. You don’t have to do this. I like to take it off because I can replace the fat with fresh water and end up with more stock at the end.
showing a measure of 500ml skimmed fat from beef bone broth
The first time I skimmed, I got nearly 450ml of fat off the top. I replaced it with 450ml water.

32 hours later….

showing finished beef bone broth
This is the finished stock. I simmered mine for a total of about 32 hours. Bones this size should simmer for at least 24 hours. The best way to know when it is done is to pull out bones and have a look at them.
examining a fully depleted stock bone
Once a solid white bone full of marrow, this is now just a hollow network of calcium fibres. If you press them between your fingers, you can crush them pretty easily. These bones have no more to give and the stock is finished.
Remove the bones
straining beef bone broth
Strain the liquid
You may find some pieces of marrow or cartilage in your strainer. You can make a snack of them or just discard them.

Cooling and Storage

cooling beef bone broth
I like to cool the liquid in a sink of cold water. If you have ice, it will speed up the process. Make sure the stock comes down to at least room temperature before you put it in the fridge. There is a lot of heat energy here and your fridge will not be able to cool it fast enough.
Once completely cool, remove any hard white fat from the top.
It is so thick at fridge temperature that this metal spoon will stand up in it
Gelatinous bounce : )
I ladle mine into 750ml yogurt containers which is usually a good amount to use for other recipes
preparing beef bone broth for freezing
Total yield from this batch is around 6.5 litres / 2 gallons of thick rich and lean beef bone broth (stock). I will press a layer of plastic wrap against the surface of the stock, put on the lids and store in my freezer.

How to use your Beef Bone Broth

Simmer any combination of meat/vegetables/mushrooms in it for a delicious soup. Add your favourite noodles to it. Or, you can simply warm it up and add rice and seasoning. You can even drink it as is for a deeply nutritious and filling liquid snack.

This beef bone broth (stock) is a liquid rich in body and texture that is mostly neutral in flavour…a base for almost anything you can imagine. Soup, stew, sauce, smoothie…anything goes. If you have any recipe that has water as an ingredient, replace it with this stock to improve the flavour and the nutritional value. As I cook with this new stock, I will post up ideas as I make them.

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