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Bossam is tender pork belly simmered with aromatics until meltingly soft, then sliced and wrapped in cabbage leaves with spicy radish salad and salted shrimp. It is the traditional reward for a long day of kimchi making. Every element is low in carbs, so it is an ideal keto feast.
Per serving: 782 calories · 6.6 g net carbs · 16 g protein · 76 g fat (calculated from the ingredients)
What You’ll Need
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 pounds skin-on or skinless pork belly in one piece
- 2 tablespoons doenjang (soybean paste)
- 1 onion halved
- 8 cloves garlic
- 2-inch piece ginger sliced
- 4 scallions
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee or whole black peppercorns (optional, for aroma)
- Radish salad: 12 ounces daikon cut into matchsticks, 2 tablespoons gochugaru, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, 1 tablespoon allulose, 3 cloves garlic minced, 1 scallion chopped
- 1 small head napa cabbage inner leaves, lightly salted
- 2 tablespoons salted shrimp (saeujeot) to serve
Instructions
- Put the pork in a pot just large enough to hold it. Add the doenjang, onion, garlic, ginger, scallions and coffee or peppercorns, and add water to cover by 1 inch.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 60 to 70 minutes, until a chopstick slides easily into the meat.
- Meanwhile, make the radish salad: toss the daikon with a pinch of salt for 10 minutes, squeeze out the water, then mix with the gochugaru, fish sauce, allulose, garlic and scallion.
- Rest the pork for 10 minutes, then slice it 1/4 inch thick.
- Arrange the pork on a platter with the cabbage leaves, radish salad and salted shrimp. Wrap a slice of pork with radish salad and a tiny bit of salted shrimp in a cabbage leaf.
Notes
Nutrition
About This Dish
Bossam is traditionally eaten during gimjang, the autumn kimchi-making season, when families and neighbors gather to make hundreds of heads of kimchi. As a thank-you, the host serves freshly boiled pork wrapped in salted cabbage with the fresh kimchi filling. Bo means to wrap, and ssam means a wrapped bite. Today bossam restaurants are found all over Korea, and it is a popular late-night delivery food. In the United States, bossam was popularized in the 2000s by chef David Chang, whose Momofuku Ssäm Bar served it as a whole roasted pork shoulder.
Pairs Well With
This recipe is from The Ultimate Korean Keto Cookbook by Gisele Costello, Chapter 7: Pork (Seongsan Ilchulbong). See all Korean recipes