Spicy Braised Korean Pork

Tonight's recipe comes from the Top Chef Cookbook, from a group challenge to create a dish using the flavors of either Korea or Vietnam. I opted to make brown rice, instead of the sticky rice ... I used up the rest of my sticky rice stash the other day! Instead of the Kim Chee, which takes 4 days to make, I purchased some marinated bok choy from H-Mart, our local Asian market. I'm pretty busy these days, and the idea of a 4-day process just wasn't striking my fancy. I found that you can view this specific recipe from the Amazon preview, so check it out here.

Because the pork shoulder needed to brown by itself for about 20 minutes on the stove, I prepped that before gathering the rest of my mise en place. I used a 4-pound pork shoulder, as opposed to a 6-pound one. There's only two of us, and we like leftovers, but eating pork for the next two weeks isn't very appealing. I rubbed the pork with 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, 2 tablespoons paprika, 2 tablespoons curry powder, 2 tablespoons minced garlic, 1 tablespoon salt, and 1 teaspoon black pepper. In the process, I ran out of paprika and curry powder! Looks like a spice shopping spree is in order!

I placed this in a large, ovenproof pot with some heated vegetable oil, and allowed it to brown on all sides, for about 20 minutes total. Meanwhile, I gathered everything else!

2 Bosc pears, peeled, cored and diced

1 cup diced carrots

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced yellow onions

10 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

1 quart apple juice

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

By the time I'd prepped all of my ingredients, my pork was nice and browned on all sides!

That looks good, huh!? It smelled delicious! I removed the pork from the pot and added the pears, carrots, celery, yellow onions, garlic cloves and ginger. I sauteed the mixture until softened, about 10 minutes.

After those 10 minutes, I added the apple juice and brought it to a boil over a medium-high heat.

I added the pork to the pot, turned it over a few times to coat and transferred it to a 350-degree oven, to cook for about 3 hours, turning every half hour or so.

Cut to three hours later, a few loads of laundry, and some good ol' puppy playtime, and the pork is ready! Remove the pot from the oven, and transfer the pork to a plate to rest, tented with aluminum foil.

Meanwhile, put the potted veggies and apple juice mixture back to the stove, and bring it to a boil. Allow it to boil until thickened, for 15 minutes, while the pork rests. After the time has passed, season the mixture with rice vinegar, salt and pepper.

To plate, I put some seasoned bok choy on each plate, and a nice mound of brown rice. I placed a thick slice of pork on each mound of rice and then topped it with some of the sauce. The pork was done PERFECTLY, and the spices were fantastic. This was a really hearty Sunday dinner...one for the books, people. One for the books!