Korean Pork Roast Sesame Leaf Wraps (Bossam)
about 6 servings

Ingredients
For the Bossam (pork roast):
About 2 lbs. pork sirloin tip roast
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup brown sugar, set aside the 1/3 cup
1/2 cup plus 1/2 tbsp salt, set aside the 1/2 tbsp
1 beer

For the Ginger Scallion Sauce, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside (best made the day before):
3 bunches of green onions, chopped
5″ piece of ginger, skinned and minced.
1/8 cup of vegetable (canola) oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp rice vinegar

For the Ssam Sauce, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside (best made the day before):
2 tbsp chili paste
2 tbsp soybean paste
1/8 cup canola oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

For the Pickled Carrots, mix all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside (best made the day before):
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup white vinegar
2 tsp salt
2 cups warm water

For serving:
Sesame leaves, about 6-10 per person (or red leaf lettuce or steamed cabbage leaves removed from core)
Rice (brown rice would be our choice)
Kimchi
Directions
For the overnight marinade:
Mix together the 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup salt in a small bowl. Place the sirloin roast in a large bowl, rub and coat it completely with the sugar mixture. Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate overnight.

To cook the roast:
Rinse the pork and place it in the crock pot with the liquid from a full bottle of beer. Cook the pork on low for 8 hours. Once it is done, heat the oven to 500 degrees and mix the remaining brown sugar and salt together. Completely coat the pork with the sugar mixture and put it in the oven for 10 minutes. This gives the pork a salty and sweet coating.

Serve the pork with rice (our choice is brown rice), some sesame leaves (or cabbage leaves), kimchi, and all the side dishes in this recipe. Just layer them all together on top of a sesame leaf, and enjoy it as it’s packed with so much good flavor. Typically, this is made with pork shoulder or pork butt, but we make it healthier by using pork sirloin. It lacks the fat (and crunchy skin) that the other parts have, but we enjoy it so much more knowing we’re doing without all that extra fat. It tastes really good to us this way that we aren’t interested in trying it with a fattier meat. My BFF said this would be the more traditional way of making bossam, so if you’re wanting to go really authentic, I would try it that way.

It looks so similar to the Mackerel Stew as it has some of the same ingredients, but it has a completely different flavor altogether. I’m totally addicted to cooking Korean dishes. The flavors in the sauces are so good that if you’re vegetarian, just leave out the pork, maybe use some tofu, and it would still taste just as delicious.