Pork Belly + Shishito Peppers = Rice's New Best Friend

​If you're a frequent KBBQ go-er or if you grill Asian meat at home, the chances are that you have either left-over, cooked pork belly (삼겹살), or frozen, uncooked pork belly meat in your fridge. They often just sit inside your takeout box until they go bad, or become a "collectors favorite" in your freezer.

I like how Baek Jong-won creates recipes to eliminate these wastes. He specifically designed this recipe so that you can revive the leftover meat into a delicious main item for your quick meal. All you need is a bowl of rice (or whatever your go-to carb is... it's even a nice stuffing item for your sandwich -- think Bahn Mi)! I especially love how few ingredients this dish needs. It calls for a pack of shishito peppers as your main ingredient. Then a few minor stuff, like minced garlic and green onions. Consequently, this dish takes less than 30 minutes to make, including all the prep. That's almost #fastfood status!

I usually have all the rest of the ingredients at home, except the green onions. I honestly skip the green onions if I don't have that handy so that I won't have to buy a small amount just for this dish, and my experience says the dish is still very good. So you have my "cheating tip". Use only when necessary... ;)

Ingredients:

• Shishito peppers - 1 pack

• Pork belly meat - approximately 1.5 lbs of pork belly (or about 6 to 8 long strips)

• Minced garlic - 1 TBSP

• Sugar - 1 TBSP

• Soy sayce - 1/3 cup

• Green onion - 1 cup, chopped (you can skip it if you don't have it handy)

• Water

• Optional: If you like it spicy, about 3 or 4 Korean chili peppers (청양고추)

1. Prep vegetables & meat

• Chop green onions finely

• Mince the garlic

• Chop shishito peppers into approximately half inches (or to your liking -- some prefer slicing the peppers in half, lengthwise, first)

• Thinly slice approximately 1.5 lbs of pork belly (or about 6 to 8 long strips)

1. Cook meat

• Heat a large wok or frying pan to a medium-high (or high) heat

• Cook pork belly meat, stirring often, until the edges are light to dark brown

• If you are working with a leftover pork belly, just throw it in the pan and reheat

1. Flavor meat

• Add green onions and mix well with the oil in the pan from pork belly

• Add 1 TBSP of sugar and stir well

• Add 1.5 cups of water and mix until the water starts to boil (if you don't like your dish "soupy", you can reduce the amount of water to approximately 3/4 cups)

• Add 1 TBSP of garlic

• Add 1/3 cup of soy sauce and mix until the meat is properly brown due to soy sauce

• Add shishito peppers

• Add shishito peppers and cook until the peppers are in the preferred consistency (I prefer cooking for approximately 5 minutes)

• Optional -- depending on the taste:

• If you want your dish to be sweeter, add more sugar (I recommend 1/2 TBSP at a time)

• If you want your dish to be saltier, add more soy sauce (I recommend 1 TBSP at a time)

• If you think your dish is too watery (although some like it that way), reduce the heat and simmer until the water evaporates to your liking

That's it! You can serve this over a bowl of rice, or eat separately with (or without) other side dishes.

Extras:

• There is no hard rule on how much meat should be used. Feel free to add more/less meat (you may need to adjust your sugar and soy sauce amount after your initial tasting).

• If you like things more spicy, feel free to throw in chopped Korean chili peppers (청양고추) with your shishito peppers. 3 or 4 chopped chili peppers will do.

• For a visual reference, check out this YouTube clip where Baek Jong-won creates this amazing dish. The clip should help you visualize the cooking process, even if you don't understand Korean.

#kfood #recipe #koreanfood #baekjongwon #korean #food #pork #shishitopeppers #porkbelly