Pork Ribs Braised Korean Style Stew/Soup – Dwejigalbi Doenjang Jjigae

Got a rack of St. Louis Style pork ribs. The goal is get tender fall off the bone meat, and a rich stew/soup that can be saved/eaten/used. Total time: 2 hours. Ingredients: pork ribs, garlic, doengjang, and scallions (veggies: tofu, potatoes, onions, mushrooms, radish, cabbage, peppers).

Braising

Braising meat is easy. Cooking slow and low with simmering liquid. Braising breaks down connective tissues in meat which add amazing flavor and texture.

Braising, the cooking of meat or vegetables by heating them slowly with oil and moisture in a tightly sealed vessel. Braising differs from stewing, in which the food is immersed in liquid, and from covered roasting, in which no liquid is added. Braising is a combination of covered roasting and steaming.

– Brittanica

Slow cookers work. Instant pots work. Dutch ovens work.

Slow cookers are great when you have 4-6 hours and want to just set it up and forget about it. Crock-pots are usually stoneware that will simmer all day while you go to work, run errands, play golf – or even overnight. The problem with slow cookers is they usually do not get hot enough to sear.

The first step of a braise often is pan searing to brown/caramelize the surface of the meat (Maillard reaction) for more flavor. If you are using a slow cooker/crockpot then and you want to sear the meat, you will need to pan sear. Another pan means another step for clean up.

Instant Pots are all-in-one gadgets that can sear, slow cook, and pressure cook. I usually sear in the Instant Pot, then set a short pressure cook which is automatically followed by a “keep warm” (145-172 F) that ends up slow cooking if I am out and about. Depending on how long you are out and about, for the St. Louis Style Ribs we are cooking today, if I would pressure cook for 5 minutes, then let it automatically “keep warm” for a few hours (2-4 hours). Again a great option if you are going to load in the ingredients and then walk away. Instant Pot pressure cooking requires the lid to be locked.

For today’s recipe, we will be doing multiple boils, changing out the water, and adding ingredients at different stages to account for the different cooking times of the various ingredients – not really ideal for locking and unlocking a pressure cooker. Although I am skipping the sear for this recipe, I do want the ability boil quickly with high heat, and will be adding ingredients at different times, so today we are using a Dutch oven.

Dutch Oven

A “Dutch oven” is a heavy cast iron pot that is often enameled for easier care.

Cast iron takes time to warm up, but will cook more evenly. If you don’t know how to season and care for cast iron, get one that is enameled.

When you need to open and add ingredients often, then a Dutch oven is a good option (compared to an Instant Pot).

You can braise pork ribs… with just beer and a bay leaf….with garlic and vinegar and soy sauce….with canned tomatoes and onions. The meat comes out tender and delicious. Serve the braised ribs with just salt and pepper; or serve with ssam and kimchi; or serve with gravy; or shred the meat for sandwiches and tacos; or coat the braised ribs with BBQ sauce and crisp in the air fryer. Soooooo goooood!

But 9 out of 10 times I usually end up throwing away the braising liquid. It’s usually kinda funky with meat byproduct “foam” and fat. Not ideal to eat. There are recipes to make gravy with this liquid, but you may need to strain the liquid and even then still kinda funky.

Today let’s save the braising liquid (precious bone broth) for Korean dwengjang/doenjang jjigae (stew) or soup. To get a cleaner broth, we take a couple of more steps and the results will be fantabulous.

Korean Fermented Bean Paste: Doenjang (된장)

Korean people who visit the US will inevitably seek out a Korean restaurant and order Kimchi Jjigae or Doenjang Jjigae at some point during their travels. These are very typical homestyle dishes so I almost never – no actually I think I have never ordered them at a restaurant. My eating out priorities often focus on things I cannot easily make at home. But for many Korean travelers, it is not only soul food, but healing health food.

Doenjang is a very traditional Korean cuisine staple. Made from fermented soybeans, it is loaded with beneficial vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, and fatty acids. Many studies have been conducted on the health benefits of fermented foods.

Nattokinase is said to clear plaque from your arteries (reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke). But eating natto can be unusual (if not down right funky) for those unaccustomed to the gooey and slimy texture of natto. Doenjang is Korean-style natto, and there studies to indicate that doenjang has antimutagenic and anticancer properties. Doenjang can also seem funky to newcomers, but its not slimy and can be used in many different recipes – like this one!

Prep the Meat and First Boil

Wash the ribs. Cut into one or two bone sections. Soak in cold water for one hour. Sometimes I will add a little vinegar to the water. I think vinegar may help tenderize and “remove impurities” but the key words would be “think” and “may.”

After soaking, dump the water. Rinse the meat.

First Boil. With just enough fresh water to cover the meat, boil to “remove impurities.” Optionally add some aromatics. For this recipe I added a spoon of doenjang for the first boil. This rich bean paste helps remove gamey “porkiness” and arguably adds some tenderness and umami depth. Boil for 30-40 minutes in a Dutch oven with lid on.

Here is a photo of the meat after the first boil. There is a lot of funky stuff floating in the water. You could skim this stuff off, but Koreans often throw out the water from the first boil.

The First Boil will remove the initial meat byproducts. We will be throwing out the first boil liquid so don’t go crazy with adding optional ingredients at this initial stage.

Prep and Braising Liquid (Soup Base)

During the First Boil, you can prepare the braising liquid base in a bowl:

• Two spoons of Korean fermented bean paste (doenjang)
• Garlic – fresh cloves diced or whatever garlic you have
• Two cups of water (or anchovy water)
• Optional: soy sauce, black pepper, ginger, vinegar, ripe kimchi juice, kochujang and/or gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes)

Throw out the first boil liquid and rinse the meat. It feels like a little bit of waste but, we want to get a clean broth. So dump all that first boil.

I expect more liquid to come from the meat and the onions, so here are the ribs after the first boil water is discarded and coated with the stew base and topped with onions.

There are 2 cups of water in the pot that is hard to see in this photo.

Cover and bring to second boil.

Second Boil and Braise

Coat the ribs with the braising stew base. To the doenjang, I added fresh chopped garlic, soy sauce, gochujang, black pepper, and vinegar (didn’t have any of the other optional ingredients).

You can be flexible when preparing this dish. You could add more vinegar if you want more of an Adobo taste profile. I roughly chopped a whole onion and threw it on top. Flavor and water will come from the onion, so used less water (maybe one cup). For jjigae (stew) the consistency should be thicker and richer, but for soup, we will add more water later (we are braising not boiling at this stage).

Cover the Dutch oven, bring it back to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the Stew Ingredients

At this point, the meat will be slowly getting softer and more and more delicious. If the meat is your main point of focus, you can probably just let it simmer for 30 to 40 minutes and eat when the meat has reached your desired doneness.

But we want a jjigae/stew that we can eat with the meat or afterwards.

Timing the braised meat so it’s fall-off-the-bone tender, and cooking the veggies to combine properly but not overcook, means adding the veggies 10-15 minutes before finishing the cook.

After 30 minutes into the second boil, add the veggies (cut into 1-inch chunks):

• potatoes (depending on the size, can be parboiled/precooked or add the potato earlier)
• tofu
• zucchini
• mushrooms
• radish
• cabbage
• red/green peppers
• scallions/green onion (add at the end of the final boil)

What veggies to add is up to you. Typically, the “standard” doenjang jjigae will have tofu, zucchini, and scallions. But adding mushrooms, scallops, clams, and sliced peppers is common.

At this stage, the meat can be pulled from the pot and served bone-in. The sauce will be richer.

Final Boil

Boil with veggies for another 10 minutes.

The veggies will produce liquid and flavor. Add water if needed.

Add chopped scallion/green onion in the last 2 minutes.

You can pull the bones from the meat if you are not serving the ribs separately. I served some of the ribs bone-in with the rich sauce that was on the meat, and then pulled the bones from the rest of the ribs, and added 4-5 cups of water to get the soup to taste right.

Korean restaurants will typically serve the jjigae in an earthenware pot bubbling hot hot hot.

Serve with rice and banchan. Or skip the rice and potatoes for a relatively low-carb healthy meal.