Braised pig's trotters Jokbal 족발

Original Recipe: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/jokbal

Ingredients

Cleaning the trotter

  • 1 large pig’s trotter (3 to 4 pounds)
  • 1 tsp ginger thinly sliced

Cooking the trotter

  • 8 cups of water
  • 1 can chicken broth (low sodium preferred)
  • 2 tablespoons doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste)
  • ¼ cup mirin
  • ⅓ cup soy sauce
  • ¼ cup dark brown sugar (or brown sugar)
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • ¼ cup ssalyeot (rice syrup)
  • 1 apple, cleaned, cored, and cut into chunks
  • 8 large jujubes
  • 1 head of garlic sliced in half to expose the cloves
  • 1 tablespoon peeled ginger, thinly sliced
  • 1 medium size onion (about 6 ounces), cut into chunks
  • 7 to 8 small dried red chili peppers (or 2 large Korean red chili peppers)
  • 4 to 5 green onions, cleaned and cut into 2 inch long
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 cinnamon stick

For the seasoning pouch:

  • 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
  • 1 tablespoon ground coffee or instant coffee

For the shrimp dipping sauce:

Directions

Prepare the pig’s trotter:

  1. Wash and rinse the pig’s trotter in cold water a couple of times until the water is clear. Fill a large bowl with cold water and soak the pig’s trotter for 12 hours (or overnight), changing the water 3 to 4 times.
  2. Strain and squeeze the pig trotter with both hands in cold water to remove any leftover blood. Squeeze and change the water a few times until no more blood is seen. Drain.
  3. Put the cleaned pig’s trotter on your cutting board. Pat dry with a kitchen towel or paper towel and shave any remaining hair with a razor.
  4. Bring a large pot of water to a boil (I used my 6½ quart soup pot). Add the pig’s trotter and 1 tablespoon of thinly sliced ginger. Cover and boil for 20 to 25 minutes over medium high heat, until vigorously boiling. You’ll see some dark brownish foam floating around the trotter and the water will look grayish.
  5. Remove from the heat. Strain the trotter and wash it in cold water with a kitchen brush. Wash the pot nicely, too. Put the pot back on the stove and put the pig’s trotter inside.

Fill the Pouch and cook

  1. Add the ingredients to the pouch, tie the end tightly and add it to the pot next to the clean trotter. Using a pouch makes the trotter cleaner when removed from the pot
  2. Add all the ingredients from the "Cooking the trotter" section to the pot.
  3. Cover and bring to a boil. Cook 1 hour over medium high heat.
  4. Uncover and turn over the trotter. Press the pouch down a couple of times with a wooden spoon.
  5. Reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook another hour.
  6. Open and check to see if the meat is well cooked by poking it with a stainless steel chopstick or a long wooden skewer. If it goes through smoothly and the meat is almost falling off the bones, it’s well cooked. If not, cook longer and add more water as needed.
  7. Turn up the heat to high heat and cook another 10 minutes with the lid off, ladling broth from the bottom of the pot over top of the trotter. The broth will evaporate a little and the trotter will get browner and shinier.
  8. Take out the trotter and put it on the cutting board. Let it cool for 10 to 20 minutes until you can handle it.

Make shrimp dipping sauce:

  1. Combine saeujeot, water, garlic, sugar, hot pepper flakes, ground black pepper, and green onion in a small bowl. Mix it well until the sugar is dissolved.
  2. Transfer to a serving bowl and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Cover and set aside.

Serve:

  1. Slice the meat off the bones and cut it into bite size pieces. Arrange it on a plate and sprinkle chopped green onion and sesame seeds over top. Serve with shrimp dipping sauce.