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I know it’s not winter anymore, but I can have soup or stew anytime of the year. I often stocked up on pork neck bones and make some stock from them. We often have one noodle soup dish throughout the week. So one weekend my husband was telling me about this delicious pork bone soup that he had at this Korean restaurant in Toronto. He started to describe what’s in the soup and it turned out to be the famous Korean gamjatang. It’s my personal favorite Korean dish too. As the pork neck bones stock was brewing I decided to turn it into gamjatang instead. The only thing I don’t have on hand was shiso leaves or known as ooba leaves or perilla leaves. They are not always available fresh at our local Asian grocery store. But from what I read shiso was pretty close to mint leaves and I have mint leaves and that was what I used.
I like meats that are still attach to the bones. I get to nibble and pick the meat off the bones 🙂 This soup is pretty straight forward to make and anything that has potatoes in it has my name written on it too ha..ha…! gosh..noodle head, potato head…. maybe I should just call myself food head 🙂
KOREAN PORK BONE SOUP / GAMJATANG (3-4 servings)
Ingredients
- 3 lbs pork neck bones
- 2- inch knot of ginger peeled
- 1 medium onion peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
- About 6-8 napa cabbage leaves roughly chopped
- 2 large potatoes peeled and quartered
- 8 oz of enoki mushrooms or other type of mushrooms of your choice trim off woody ends
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1 large bunch of tang oh / Garland Chrysanthemum / Crown Daisy Leaves trim off large stems and roughly torn to large pieces
Garnishes:
- 2 cups of mung bean sprouts blanch in hot water for 3 minutes
- 10 perilla leaves cut into thin long strips, may be substituted with mint leaves if you must
- 2 stalks spring onions finely chopped
Sauce:
- 2 Tbsp of Korean soybean paste
- 1 tsp of gochujang
- 1 Tbsp of Korean chili powder
- 2 Tbsp of fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp of rice cooking wine
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients for sauce in a medium bowl and stir to mix then set aside. Place the pork neck bones in a large pot. Cover with water and add in onion and garlic and bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. Carefully discard all the water, onion, and garlic and rinse the pork neck bones with water. Clean the pot if you can and place the pork neck bones back into the pot and cover with water until 1-inch above the pork bones. Add in the the sauce ingredients. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer and cook for the next 1 1/2 hours or until the meat on the pork neck bones are tender
- Twenty minutes before the end of cooking time. Add in the mushrooms, chopped napa cabbage and potatoes. Have a taste and season with more salt to your liking. Turn off the heat. Place some tang oh on serving bowl and then laddle the hot soup along with the pork neck bones, potatoes, and mushroom over. Garnish with some bean sprouts, perilla leaves, and spring onion. Serve immediately
1 comment
Adding this to the must tries as well.