Some Korean students were gathered around a barbecue in a park in Brisbane, cooking up this awesome-smelling pork, so I got talking to them about what they were cooking. They were using one of those awful electric barbecues you get in public parks, and had covered it with foil — I suppose to make it hygienic, but also to avoid making an awful mess that they’d later have to clean. Their barbecue recipe was pretty simple, and then they just rolled the pork in wraps with kimchi, along with a few garnishes that I’ve Westernised a little here…

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 500 g pork belly spare ribs, sliced into
• thin strips
• sunflower oil, for greasing
• 3 tablespoons Japanese mayonnaise (Kewpie)
• 1 tablespoon Korean fermented chilli paste (gochujang), or to taste
• 2 avocados, sliced
• 1 cup shredded Kimchi
• 1 butter lettuce
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• 6 flour tortillas

Marinade

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 100 ml light soy sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 100 ml mirin
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 5 spring onion whites, finely chopped

Method
Combine all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add the sliced pork spare ribs and thoroughly coat with the mixture. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
Remove the pork from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
Prepare your barbecue hotplate for cooking over a medium–high heat. (If, like the Korean kids, you don’t want to make a big mess on your hotplate, line it with foil before you start cooking!)
Add a little oil to the hotplate. Add your pork slices and cook quickly, no more than 10 minutes, until well done.
Meanwhile, combine the mayonnaise with the chilli paste to make a chilli mayo. Arrange the avocado, kimchi and lettuce on a serving platter, along with the lime wedges and tortillas.
Transfer the cooked pork to the serving platter.
Now just make yourself a wrap, with as much of each garnish as you like. The avocado will help take the heat out of the chilli mayo.

Recipe courtesy of Cooked.com.au. 

This recipe first appeared in Ben’s BBQ Bible ($39.95) courtesy of Hardie Grant.