Pear-Marinated Smoky Jeyuk Bokkeum

Method

1. Cut the pork into 4 mm thick, 5 cm pieces. Finely grate the pear and the onion for the marinade; slice the other onion into 1 cm strips. Mince the white part of the leek; shred the green part into fine 5 cm threads and drop them into cold water. Slice the chilli diagonally and roll the perilla leaves up and cut into 0.5 cm ribbons.

2. In a bowl, mix the grated pear and onion, gochujang, gochugaru, most of the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, garlic, ginger, pepper and half the sesame oil. Add the pork, massage it in and marinate in the fridge for 1 h. The pear's enzymes tenderise the meat, but beyond 4 hours the texture turns mealy.

   Add in this stepAsian pear, finely grated 50 gOnion, finely grated 40 gGochujang (Korean chilli paste) 1½ tbspGochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) 1 tbspSoy sauce 0.9 tbspMirin or Korean cooking wine 1 tbspSugar 2 tspMinced garlic 2 tspMinced ginger ½ tspGround black pepper 1 pinchToasted sesame oil ¾ tspPork neck or shoulder, sliced 4 mm thick 320 g

3. Put the oil and minced leek white in a 28 cm frying pan or wok and fry over medium heat for 1 min 30 sec to make a leek oil. It is ready when the leek edges turn golden and smell toasty.

   Add in this stepNeutral oil 2 tbspKorean leek or thick spring onion (white part minced, green part finely shredded) ½

   medium heat

4. Turn the heat up to high heat and lay the pork and its marinade in a single layer. Leave it alone for the first minute so the surface chars and picks up a smoky flavour, then keep turning and searing for 5 min in total. If it will not fit in one layer, cook it in two batches, setting the first aside on a plate and combining at the end. It is ready when no pink remains and the edges are deeply caramelised.

   high heat

5. Add the sliced onion and chilli and stir-fry over medium-high heat for 2 min. Push everything to one side to clear a patch of pan, turn up to high heat and pour the remaining soy sauce onto the bare spot; let it sizzle and scorch for 15 sec. As soon as it bubbles and smells deeply savoury, toss it through the pork. This is the secret to the charcoal-grill aroma.

   Add in this stepOnion, sliced ½Hot green chilli 1Soy sauce 0.6 tbsp

   medium-high heat→high heat

6. Turn off the heat, drizzle with the rest of the sesame oil and transfer to a plate. Pile the drained leek threads and perilla on top, sprinkle with sesame and serve at once. It is best when the leek just wilts on the hot pork.

   Add in this stepToasted sesame oil ¾ tspKorean leek or thick spring onion (white part minced, green part finely shredded) ½Toasted sesame seeds 1 tspPerilla leaves 6