Jokbal

Trotters braised for hours and then cooled in their liquid before slicing, which is the only way they cut cleanly.

Pork, Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains pork, shellfish.

Ingredients

• 2 kg pig's trotters, split lengthways
• 200 ml soy sauce
• 100 ml rice wine
• 4 tablespoons sugar or rice syrup
• 1 tablespoon doenjang
• 1 head garlic, halved
• 1 piece ginger, 6 cm, sliced
• 2 onions, halved
• 4 spring onions
• 2 dried chillies
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules or 1 tablespoon black tea leaves
• 3 litres water
• lettuce, ssamjang as on its own page, and salted shrimp, to serve

Method

1. THEY ARE COOLED IN THE BRAISING LIQUID BEFORE THEY ARE SLICED. Lifted out hot, a trotter shreds and tears and the skin slides off the meat; left in the liquid until it is only just warm, the gelatine sets enough to hold everything together and a sharp knife goes straight through into clean slices with skin, fat and meat in each one. An hour of cooling, and the difference is between a plate of slices and a heap of debris.
2. THEY ARE SOAKED AND THEN BLANCHED, and the blanching water is thrown away with the pot scrubbed. Two hours in cold water changed twice, then fifteen minutes at a boil with a few slices of ginger. Trotters are the strongest-smelling thing in this collection and this is what deals with it.
3. THE COFFEE OR TEA IS NOT A JOKE AND IS NOT FOR FLAVOUR. A spoonful of either in the braise darkens the skin to the colour jokbal is supposed to be and its tannins cut the fattiness. You will not taste coffee. Left out, the dish is paler and heavier and nothing else is wrong with it.
4. THE SKIN MUST GO COMPLETELY SOFT, which is two and a half to three hours at a bare simmer. Tested by pushing a skewer through the thickest part of the skin: no resistance at all. Underdone skin is rubbery and is the one fault nobody forgives.
5. AND THE LIQUID IS REDUCED AFTERWARDS, with the trotters out, to a glaze that is brushed over the slices. Reduced with them in, the skin dries and tightens.
6. Trotters covered with cold water and SOAKED 2 HOURS, the water changed twice.
7. Drained, covered with fresh water, a few slices of ginger added, and boiled 15 MINUTES. The WATER THROWN AWAY, the trotters rinsed and the pot scrubbed.
8. Returned to the pot with the 3 litres of water, soy sauce, rice wine, sugar, doenjang, garlic, ginger, onions, spring onions, chillies, cinnamon and the coffee.
9. Brought to the boil and skimmed, then dropped to a BARE simmer.
10. Cooked 2 HOURS 30 MINUTES to 3 hours, turned once an hour, until a skewer goes through the thickest skin without resistance.
11. THE HEAT OFF AND THE TROTTERS LEFT IN THE LIQUID 1 HOUR, until only just warm.
12. Lifted out carefully onto a board.
13. The liquid strained and boiled down hard to a syrupy glaze, 15 to 20 minutes.
14. The meat and skin sliced off the bone in neat pieces with a sharp knife, brushed with the glaze, and served warm with lettuce, ssamjang as on its own page and salted shrimp.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes