My Foodie Experiments: Spicy Stir Fried Pork – Doejibulgogi (or Daeji bulgogi, daeji bulgogi)

Here is another Korean dish experiment that I did in my kitchen. This was a fairly simple pork dish. Stir fried and spicy! It came out looking like I had slathered it with lots of gochujang (red pepper paste) which is what I did do. Below is the recipe I got from Maangchi.com. Thanks Maangchi, she is my go-to-gal for Korean recipes.

Ingredients:

600 grams (1.5 pounds) pork belly sliced into bite size pieces ¼ inch thick.

1 medium onion, sliced

3 stalks green onions, chopped diagonally

4 cloves garlic, minced

½ teaspoon ginger, minced

1 green chili pepper, chopped (optional)

1/3 cup hot pepper paste

2 tablespoons hot pepper flakes

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 teaspoons sesame oil

In a thick bottomed wok or pan, add all the ingredients together. Heat up the pan over high heat. Mix and stir all ingredients with a wooden spoon, until the pork is cooked thoroughly. It’ll take about 10 minutes and the onion will look translucent and mushy when it’s done transfer it to a serving plate and serve with a bowl of rice, some lettuce, a few more side dishes (if you want), some soup, and kimchi also.

My cooking notes: I wasn’t able to find the green chili pepper and hot pepper flakes so I skipped those ingredients. The dish didn’t have any problems with being spicy. I also roasted some sesame seeds and sprinkled them on top of my cooked doejibulgogi and they taste great. I love the roasted sesame seeds.

This was actually my 2^nd try already as I wasn’t able to document the first one. So I made a few changes to make the 2^nd dish even more interesting. I really sliced the pork thinly. Maybe a bit thin than the ¼ inch thick that the recipe says. Don’t slice your pork into big bite-size pieces because you’d end up with fatty chunks of meat that you wouldn’t like to eat. I also put in a little more grated ginger than the recipe says. I love ginger and it’s really good with this dish. I also used Kikkoman soy sauce and not your usual Datu Puti/Silver Swan soy sauce in this recipe.

The pork tasted really good and spicy. I loved putting it on the lettuce leaves with some rice and eating it like a spring roll. I was able to eat a lot of it. The dish had the right amount of spiciness although there is about 1/3 cup of the hot pepper paste in there. The seasoning was just right. The sweetness was not overpowering nor was the saltiness. I’d say there was a good balance of flavors here. The pork was cooked just right and it absorbed all the flavors from the spices. Eating it with the lettuce made it refreshing so I really do suggest doing this for the dish. This is very easy to make and takes up just a few minutes. 45 minutes I think with the prep time included.

Have fun cooking!