Pork Belly Cooked with Onions

Step 1

Cut the onions into 1/2 inch thick slices so that you have enough onion slices to cover the bottom of a thick iron or good quality pot that does not burn easily.

Step 2

Cut the pork belly into 2-3 inch wide pieces and put it on top of the onions. You can lay the meat skin side down if you do not wish to have the meat side too burned.

Step 3

Clean the green onions or scallions and cut it in half. You should have enough green onions to cover the meat. If you can, save the root end of the green onions, clean it well and also add it to the pot. Use 1/2 leeks and 1/2 green onions if you’d like.

Step 4

Turn the heat to medium high and COVER the pot. Let it cook for few minutes (10 min or so) until you smell the onions burning a bit. So you may wonder: No water? No oil? No worries. You will get the fat dripping from the pork belly so you actually don’t need any additional liquid.

Step 5

Lower the heat to low and cook for about an hour until the meat is cooked thoroughly. The onions may look burnt but it’s ok. You are not going to eat the onions but just the meat. You can test how well the meat is cooked by piercing the meat with a chopstick or fork. If the chopstick or fork goes in without too much resistance and if there’s no blood, it is completely cooked.

Step 6

Take the meat out of the pot, let it sit for few minutes. Discard onions. Cut the pork into about 1/4 inch slices (thicker or thinner, however you like it) .

Step 7

Eat the pork with one of the following condiments: soy sauce and vinegar, ssam-jang, kimchi, or sae-woo-jeot (salted and fermented tiny shrimps). Along with the condiments, I recommend you eat this pork with rice, lettuce wraps (see ssambap) and kimchi.