Bossam 보쌈 (Pork Belly Wraps)
The centerpiece of bossam is pork belly, boiled and sliced. The pork belly is served with a bunch of side ingredients including garlic, onion, ssamjang (dipping sauce), saeujeot (pickled, fermented shrimp) and newly made kimchi. The meat and sides are wrapped in vegetable leaves, such as green/red lettuce, perilla/sesame leaves or napa cabbage. It’s the perfect bite of soft, melt in your mouth pork belly with fresh and crisp ingredients.
Living so close to Koreatown, I’ve gotten quite familiar with bossam. My all-time favorite place is Kobawoo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn6qmThGJyI) for traditional bossam. For a slightly more modern and youthful take, I go to Mister Bossam. If you’re ever in town, I recommend checking out both.
Servings: 2-3
Pork Belly Ingredients:
2” thumb of ginger, rough sliced
4 scallions, rough chopped
1 heaping tbsp of doenjang (Korean soybean paste)
8 large garlic cloves
1 tbsp of instant coffee
½ tbsp of brown sugar
1 ½ lbs of pork belly
6 cups of room temperature water
Wrap Ingredients:
Perilla leaves, trimmed
Pickled radish slices, halved
Green lettuce leaves, trimmed
Kimchi
Ssamjang (dipping sauce) Ingredients:
1 tbsp of doenjang
½ tbsp of gochujang
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp of sesame oil
Directions:
1. Boil pork belly. Put all pork belly ingredients into a large saucepan or pot. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours. Remove from heat and set aside to cool down until ready to serve.
2. Prepare wrap ingredients. While the pork belly cools down, prepare all your wrap ingredients. Wash and trim perilla leaves and green lettuce leaves. Take out kimchi and pickled radish slices. Set aside.
3. Mix ssamjang. Combine all dipping sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.
4. Slice pork belly. Once pork belly has cooled, slice into 1 cm thick pieces. Plate.
5. Wrap, enjoy and repeat. Start with a piece of lettuce as your wrapper, then put whatever combination of ingredients you like, wrap it up and eat it whole. My go to combo is lettuce, pickled radish, pork belly dipped in ssamjang and a piece of kimchi. You can also do perilla leaf, pork belly dipped in ssamjang and a piece of kimchi. Wrap as you like!
Notes:
I know that this may not be the way native Koreans eat bossam; this is how I eat bossam with pretty simple ingredients. At restaurants, bossam usually comes with wrap ingredients like raw garlic slices, raw onion slices, saeujeot (pickled, fermented shrimp), newly made kimchi and raw oysters.
If you would like more wrap options, you can also use red lettuce or quick pickled napa cabbage.
Wait until the pork belly has cooled to room temperature before slicing. If it’s slice warm when you slice, the pork belly will pull apart.
My camera was having a bit of trouble focusing, sorry for the blur in the last clip!
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