Recipe: Korean Spicy Marinated Pork.

Posted on July 16, 2016 by kpopjacketlady

spicy pork recipe 038

This pork dish is wonderful just served with rice, or it can be used in Bibimbap and is also fantastic in fusion style fajitas, which is usually what I make if I ever have leftovers. As with many Korean recipes it is easy to adjust the spiciness by lowering the amount of red pepper paste and/or red pepper flakes, but as the name says this is meant to be spicy. As shown this recipe is right at my spiciness break point, and it is fabulous.

Being a marinated recipe you need to plan ahead. I usually marinated the meat about 8 hours, or overnight, but you can probably get away with 3-5 hours understanding that you won’t get quite the same depth of flavor. I use pork loin, because my local supermarket usually has a really good sale every couple of months, but you can use a cheaper cut of meat if you wish.

Gather ingredients. You’ll need 3 tablespoons of minced garlic, fresh is best but you can use it from a jar.That also goes for the 3 tablespoons of fresh ginger. I didn’t have enough fresh so used some nice minced ginger in a jar that I found at H.Mart and keep on hand for just such an occasion. Mince both the garlic and ginger or use a garlic press.

Add 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 2 tbs soy sauce, and 2 tbs sherry. (If you have a good mirin on hand you can use that instead of the sherry.)

Add 1/4 cup Korean red pepper paste, 2 tbs Korean red pepper flakes, 1/4 – 1/2 tsp black pepper, 3 tbs sugar or honey. Mix all these ingredients together. Roughly chop 1 medium onion and 3 green onions, add to bowl and mix well. Put to one side while you prepare the pork.

You want at least 2 lbs of pork, and you can use up to 3 lbs. I used 3lbs as I wanted leftovers. Remove any icky bits from pork and discard. Cut into large bite sized pieces and put in large bowl.

Mix marinade and pork together in bowl, put in large plastic storage bag. Seal bag and make sure everything is completely mixed together and the pork is coated with the marinade. I gently knead the bag to ensure a good a good coating. Open bag slightly and press on bag to remove any air in bag, reseal and put bag in refrigerator overnight, or 8 hours.

Get the bag of marinated meat of refrigerator and put in large bowl. Coat a large frying or saute pan with canola oil and put to medium high heat. Once the pan and oil are hot carefully add pieces of meat to pan and cook thoroughly. Don’t overfill pan as you need to make sure pork is cooked. Keep cooking the pork in batches, putting the cooked pieces in an ovenproof bowl that can be kept in a warm oven to keep the meat warm while you cook the rest.

Sometimes burnt or, icky bits will be in the pan, so remove them before you cook the next batch of pork.

Once you have cooked all the meat pieces pour all the rest of the marinade mixture into the pan and cook for about 5-7 minutes. Then mix the meat and the marinade together making sure the pork is coated evenly. If your pan is large enough you can mix everything back together in the pan, otherwise use a large bowl and be careful of the hot ingredients. Some recipes will have you cook the meat and the marinade together which is quicker and easier, and I would do it that way if the meat was beef, but I’m always cautious with pork and prefer to know that each piece has been properly cooked.