Monday · cooks for Mon, Tue
Gochujang Braised Pork with Charred Cabbage
pork shoulder, gochujang, gochugaru, charred cabbage, short-grain rice
Pork shoulder and cabbage is a combination that gets better in the fridge, which is exactly what Monday needs. The cabbage goes in charred and deliberately undercooked so it still has structure on Tuesday, and two pounds of it is what makes this a plate of vegetables with pork in it rather than the reverse.
Method
16 steps- Set the Instant Pot to Saute and add 1 tbsp neutral oil.
- Sear the pork in two batches, about 5 minutes a batch, until deeply brown on two sides, then move it to a plate.
- Add the sliced onion to the fat and cook 3 minutes, until it takes some color.
- Add the garlic and ginger. Cook 45 seconds, until they smell sweet rather than raw.
- Pour in the stock and scrape every brown patch off the bottom of the pot.
- Return the pork and any juices from the plate, and stir in the braise sauce.
- Lid on, high pressure 25 minutes, natural release 12. It takes about 10 minutes to come to pressure, and the timeline counts that.
- While it cooks, heat cast iron over high until a drop of water skitters across the surface.
- Add 1/2 tbsp oil, then a quarter of the cabbage in a single layer. Leave it completely alone for 2 minutes.
- Toss and char 3 minutes more, until the edges are blackened in spots, then turn it into a bowl and salt it there, not in the pan.
- Repeat with the other three batches, re-oiling each time. Crowding the pan steams the cabbage instead of charring it.
- Stop while the cabbage still has real bite. It softens by Tuesday, which is the point.
- Open the pot, lift the pork out with a slotted spoon, then tilt the pot and spoon the fat cap off the sauce.
- Reduce on Saute 5 to 8 minutes, until the sauce coats a spoon, and taste for salt and vinegar.
- Return the pork and fold in half the cabbage.
- Serve over rice with the rest of the cabbage underneath, scallions and sesame seeds over the top.
Why It Works
- Two-sided sear. In a pressure braise the exterior of the meat keeps cooking under steam. Brown two faces hard for flavor and let the pressure finish the rest, or you get dry edges around a tender center.
- Salt the cabbage last. Salt on the way into a hot pan pulls water out immediately and the cabbage steams in its own liquid instead of charring. Salt it in the bowl on the way out and you get color and seasoning both.
- Reduce after, not before. Nothing evaporates in a sealed pot, so a pressure braise always comes out looser than you want. The 8 minutes on saute at the end is what turns liquid into glaze.
- Gochugaru is the one line item here that only serves this dish. If you would rather not buy a bag for 2 tablespoons, 1 1/2 tbsp sweet paprika plus 1 1/2 tsp cayenne plus a pinch of sugar gets the color and the heat, though not the fruit.
Day Two
Pack the two Tuesday containers first, while everything is hot: rice on one side, braise and sauce on the other, charred cabbage and scallions over the top, lid on. Two containers, not one, since she eats early and you eat later. Fridge up to 4 days.
Microwave covered 2 minutes, stir, 2 minutes more. On the stove, low heat with a splash of water, 8 minutes covered. The cabbage softens by Tuesday, which is fine, because it went in with a lot of bite for exactly that reason.
A cold Korean or Japanese lager: Hite, Cass or Sapporo
Gochujang is sweet and salty at once, and a clean lager resets the palate between bites. If you would rather have wine, an off-dry Riesling handles the sugar and the chile better than anything red.