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5.0 from 21 votes

Bossam - Korean Pork Belly Wrap

Bossam refers to this perfect package created by wrapping unctuous pork belly, spicy and refreshing kimchi radish salad in crunchy pickled cabbage leaves. Great as a one dish meal but also great for parties, you just can't stop eating it, especially if you are a pork and kimchi lover.

Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Additional Time
1 hr 30 mins
Total Time
27 mins
Servings: 6
Calories: 840 kcal
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Korean

Ingredients

Pickled Cabbage Leaves
  • 9 cups water
  • 1.5 cup Korean sea salt (cheonilyeom) (for kimchi)
Pork
  • 2 lb pork belly (or pork butt, shoulder)
  • 8 cups water
  • 1.5 Tbsp Doenjang (Korean Soy Bean Paste) (or miso)
  • 3 piecs fresh ginger (1 pc = 2 grams)
  • 2 tsp coffee beans
Kimchi Radish Salad (or Stuffing)
  • 1 lb radish (Korean or daikon)
  • 4 Tbsp red chili powder (gochukaru)
  • 1.5 Tbsp fermented salted shrimp (saewoojeot)
  • 1.5 Tbsp Anchovy sauce (myeolchi aekjeot)
  • 3 Tbsp garlic (chopped)
  • 0.5 tsp ginger (grated)
  • 1.5 Tbsp sugar
  • 0.5 tsp sea salt
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds (roasted)
  • 2 green onions (sliced)
  • 2 oz minari (water dropwart) (optional)

Instructions

For Pickling Cabbage Leaves:
    Cup of Yum
  1. Mix water and Korean cheonilyeom sea salt to make brine.
  2. Cut head of napa cabbage to loosen leaves to total about 1/2 of the cabbage. You can also just cut cabbage in half and use one side.
  3. Immerse cabbage leaves in brine made in 1 and let it pickle for 1 1/2 hrs or until cabbage is soft and shriveled. You don't need to fully pickle the leaves like for kimchi - I kind of like it a little less pickled with a little crunch left but it's up to you.
  4. Drain cabbage for 10-15 minutes until fully drained. If you are not going to use right away, refrigerate up to 3 days and use later.
  5. When serving, cut cabbage into 1/2 lengthwise to make it easier to eat.
For Pork:
  1. In a pot add water, add doenjang, fresh ginger and bring to boil.
  2. Add pork and cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes(for 1 lb) until it becomes tender enough for a fork to go in easily. You may need to cook longer up to an hour if you are increasing the amount of pork.
  3. Take pork out of the pot and let it cool for few minutes and then loosely cover with wrap or foil until it cools enough for you to slice. Reason for covering is so that it doesn't dry out while cooling. If you can, it's yummiest when you eat the pork while it's warm.
For Radish Kimchi Salad/Stuffing (Kimchi sok):
  1. Julienne radish - either with knife or use a mandoline.
  2. Cut green onions and minari (water dropwart) if you have it.
  3. In a small bowl, make seasoning paste by mixing Korean red chili powder, saewoojeot, anchovy sauce, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, sugar, salt except for sesame seeds.
  4. Add kimchi seasoning paste to bowl with radish and coat radish evenly with the paste. It may feel like it's too dry at first but radish juice will soon make it very wet.
  5. Add green onions and minari and mix again. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top when serving.
  6. *** If you want to add oysters, you need to increase salt level by adding more seasoning.
  7. Serve bossam all in one plate with pork belly slices on one side, cabbage leaves and spicy radish salad on the other side. You can of course serve all of them separately too.

Notes

  • ** It's hard to get the nutritional facts accurate for this dish because the brine and the Doenjang water used for cooking pork will not be all consumed.
  • Additional items to serve with Bossam
  • Tips for making Perfect Bossam
  • fresh oysters (which can also be mixed into radish salad)
  • saewoojeot (fermented shrimp)
  • ssamjang
  • other ssam greens like perilla leaves
  • raw or tasted garlic slivers
  • Best Pork Cut - Pork belly is the authentic and traditional cut to use but you can also use pork shoulder or butt. It will be less fatty which you may like better or not.
  • Fresh Oysters - you can add fresh oysters to your radish salad but be sure to increase the amount of seasoning because it can become too bland after oysters are added
  • Pickling Cabbages - when pickling cabbages, it's better if you pickle it a little less than you would for Kimchi. It should be still a bit crunchy and feel that it may break when you try to bend it (as opposed to cabbage fully bending). See my Kimchi post for more info.
  • Use Korean sea salt (cheonilyeom) to pickle cabbages for best result. Using just any salt will make the cabbage bitter. Cheonilyeom is Korean sea salt that has been aged for 3 years to remove the bittern. Read more about it here.
  • Reserve some of the pork broth to use for drizzling the pork if the pork gets too dry before serving.
  • It's best when pork is still warm so try to time it when it's still warm.
  • Storage and Reheating - pork tastes best when it's freshly cooked but you can store in the fridge and reheat in a pan or in microwave. Personally, I prefer reheating by frying in a pan (no oil, on medium heat).

Nutrition Information

Calories 840kcal (42%) Carbohydrates 10g (3%) Protein 17g (34%) Fat 81g (125%) Saturated Fat 29g (145%) Cholesterol 114mg (38%) Sodium 881mg (37%) Potassium 616mg (18%) Fiber 3g (12%) Sugar 5g (10%) Vitamin A 1675IU (34%) Vitamin C 14.3mg (16%) Calcium 83mg (8%) Iron 2.3mg (13%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 6Serving

Amount Per Serving

Calories 840

% Daily Value*

Calories 840kcal 42%
Carbohydrates 10g 3%
Protein 17g 34%
Fat 81g 125%
Saturated Fat 29g 145%
Cholesterol 114mg 38%
Sodium 881mg 37%
Potassium 616mg 13%
Fiber 3g 12%
Sugar 5g 10%
Vitamin A 1675IU 34%
Vitamin C 14.3mg 16%
Calcium 83mg 8%
Iron 2.3mg 13%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.