Dongpo Pork (Dongpayuk) · Lee Yeon-bok

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and lower the whole 1.5 kg slab of pork belly in. Cover it and boil for 40 minutes.

💡 Whole, not sliced. A slab holds together through two more hours of cooking; pre-cut pieces would shred into stringy scraps long before the fat has softened.

Watch the pot for the first few minutes and crack the lid slightly if it threatens to boil over.

💡 He calls this out specifically. Pork belly throws a lot of foam early on, and a covered pot will climb over the rim in seconds.

While it boils, cut the ginger and green onion into big rough chunks — thumb-sized, not minced — and tear the bird's-eye chilies apart with your fingers. Set them aside with the star anise.

Film a wide pan with a little oil and set it over medium heat until it shimmers.

Lift the boiled pork out of the water and lay it in the pan SKIN SIDE DOWN only. Sear just the skin — none of the other faces.

💡 Only the skin goes on the metal. Searing the meat sides would dry them out, and they are about to spend two hours in liquid anyway.

It will spatter hard. When it does, blot the surface oil off with a paper towel and put a lid on the pan to keep frying safely.

💡 Beginner warning: boiled pork skin is soaked with water, and water hitting hot oil is what launches it at your arms. Blot first, lid second — do not just turn the heat up and hope.

Keep going 5–8 minutes until the skin is golden brown and blistered — it should look puffed and pocked, not smooth.

Take the pork out and cut it into slices on the thick side — about 2 cm. Do not slice it thin.

Lay the slices in a pot and pour in 1 L of water and 150 ml of mat-ganjang. Set it on the heat.

💡 Liquid first, then seasonings. Adding the pastes and sauces to plain water lets them dissolve instead of scorching on the bottom of a dry pot.

Add the oyster sauce (5스푼) and the dark soy (2스푼), then the big chunks of ginger and green onion, and the star anise.

Add the mirin (100 ml), the sugar (2스푼) and the torn bird's-eye chilies. Cover, and simmer gently for about 2 hours.

💡 Gentle is the word — you want a lazy bubble, not a rolling boil. A hard boil for two hours will shake the slices to pieces and reduce the braise to a salt lick.

Check in once or twice as it goes: taste the liquid for salt and press a slice to gauge it. Kill the heat when the pork is so tender it nearly melts on the tongue.

💡 Time is a guide, doneness is the rule. Slab thickness and how hard your pot bubbles both move the clock — the melt test is what actually decides it.

Cut the eolgari cabbage into bite-size lengths. Drop the thick white stems into hot water first and let them go 30–60 seconds, then add the leaves and blanch just until they turn deep green and limp.

Bed the blanched cabbage on a plate, sit the pork on top, and spoon the braising sauce over everything.

💡 The greens are not garnish. They soak up the sauce and their bitterness resets your palate between bites of very rich fat — dongpo pork without something green gets cloying fast.