Spicy roasted pork, or jeyuk gui (제육구이), is made from pork marinated with spicy pepper paste. It's a popular dish that many people enjoy. In Korea, many pork recipes can be found, as in the past a lot of people used to raise pigs.

Pork recipes can be found in the "Eumsik Dimibang" (음식디미방, 飮食 知味方), the first cookbook written in Korean, from the mid-Joseon era. These recipes include fried pork after marinating the meat and dipping it in flour. Other recipes in the book include a steamed dish of baby pork (아저, 兒猪).



Spicy roasted pork pairs well with lettuce wraps, as together they create harmony in terms of both taste and nutrition. “Ssam” means to wrap food in large green leaves, with ssamjang dipping sauce mixed with pepper paste, garlic, sesame oil and soybean paste, or gangdoenjang (강된장). People used to enjoy wrapping rice, marinated beef or sliced raw fish in green leaves like lettuce or pumpkin leaves. They believed that such wrapped food would bring good fortune.

Ssam is an easy way to directly eat a range of raw vegetables without having to specifically prepare each of them. One can enjoy the unique taste, aroma, color and texture of the ingredients by having ssam dishes, allowing the diners to consume nutrients, such as vitamins and minerals.

Lettuce, or sangchu, is considered a perfect ingredient for wrapped dishes. It got its name from the old name saengchae (생채, 生菜), which means a vegetable that can be eaten raw. Lettuce was popular during the Three Kingdoms of Korea (57 B.C.-A.D. 668). Lettuce was also popular in China during Korea's Goryeo Dynasty (37 B.C.-A.D. 668). During the Qing Dynasty, Chinese historian and calligrapher Gao Shiqui wrote the book “Tian lu shi yu shi juan” (천록식여, 天祿識餘), a book of miscellaneous records. In it, he said that, “Lettuce produced from Goryeo is of excellent quality. The lettuce seeds brought by Goryeo envoys are dubbed cheon manchae (천만채, 天萬菜), as they cost thousands of gold coins."

[Spicy roasted pork]

** Ingredients
550 grams of pork sirloin

Seasoning:
0.5 tablespoon of ginger juice
1 tablespoon of refined rice wine

Marinade:
2.75 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of pepper paste
2 tablespoons of red pepper
2 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of refined rice wine
2 tablespoons of chopped green onions
0.5 tablespoons of minced garlic
0.125 teaspoons of ground pepper
50 grams of lettuce
50 grams of crown daisies



** Preparation
1. Clean the blood off the pork. Cut the meat into strips that are 6 centimeters wide, 4 centimeters long and 2 millimeters thick. Make fines knife creases on both sides of the meat.
2. Prepare the seasoning and the marinade.
3. Trim the lettuce and crown daisy leaves.



** Recipe
1. Marinate the meat with the seasoning and wait for about 10 minutes.
2. Put about two thirds of the marinade onto the meat. Rub the meat for 30 minutes so that the meat becomes marinated.
3. Heat a gridiron and put on some canola oil. Roast the meat by placing it about 15 centimeters over the flame for 3 minutes. Flip the meat and roast it for another 3 minutes.
4. Brush the rest of the marinade on the meat and keep cooking.
5. Place the lettuce and crown daisy leaves in a bowl and put the roasted meat on top.



[Lettuce wrap, sangchu ssam ]



** Ingredients

100 grams of lettuce
20 grams of small green onions
20 grams of crown daisies
4 green chilies
2 red chilies
50 grams of cucumber
30 grams of dried small shrimps
2 teaspoons of canola oil

Marinade:
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
0.5 teaspoons of sugar
1 teaspoon of starch syrup
0.5 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 shitake mushroom
20 grams of beef

Seasoning for beef and shitake mushroom: 0.5 teaspoons of chopped green onions
0.5 teaspoons of minced garlic
0.125 teaspoons of ground pepper
0.125 teaspoons of sugar
0.5 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 tablespoon of soybean paste
0.5 tablespoons of pepper paste
1 tablespoon of water

Fried pepper paste:
20 grams of beef
2 tablespoons of pepper paste
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of chopped green onions
0.5 teaspoons of minced garlic
1 teaspoon of sesame salt
3 tablespoons of water
0.5 tablespoons of sesame oil

** Preparation
1. Trim the lettuce, small green onions, green and red peppers and wash them all. Rub the cucumber with salt to clean it. Cut the cucumber into 4 pieces.
2. Grind up the dried small shrimps using a strainer.
3. Soak the shitake mushrooms for 1 hour. Trim the mushroom by cutting its head and removing any water from it. Cut the mushroom into 1-centimeter thick slices. Clean the blood off the beef and finely slice it into strips. Marinade the beef.
4. Clean the blood off the beef and prepare it for frying with the pepper paste.

** Recipe
1. Heat the frying pan and add some canola oil. Fry the dried small shrimps over a medium heat for 1 minute. Add the marinade and fry them for another 1 minute.
2. Finely slice the shitake mushroom and beef and marinade them all together. Fry the mushrooms and beef in the preheated pan. Add the soybean paste, pepper paste, sesame oil and water and then fry them all together until it gets thick.
3. Add the chopped green onions, garlic, sesame salt, pepper paste and sugar to the beef. Fry it all together in the preheated pan over a medium heat for 2 minutes. Put in some water and sesame oil and fry it all for another 1 minute to make the fried pepper paste.
4. Place the lettuce and crown daisy leaves on a plate with the chili peppers and cucumber. Serve the dish with ssamjang dipping sauce and the fried pepper paste.

Managed by Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
In cooperation with the Institute of Traditional Korean Food (ITKF)
Recipe from “The Beauty of Korean Food: 100 Best-Loved Recipes”
arete@korea.kr