Today I’m making a easier version of the classic Gamjatang using my instant pot. When I was in high school, I used to take music and band lessons in Richmond Hill. My parents would always go to a T&T supermarket and they had a stall that would sell Korean Pork Bone potato stew (gamjatang). It was the highlight of my week. When cooked on stove top, it will take upward 2 to 2.5 hours. While I like trying to make recipes the old fashioned way, I still would like a easier way to I wanted to find a quicker and easier way to cook it during the work week when I don’t a lot of have time hovering around a stove. That’t why I’m sharing this easy instant pot Gamjatang.

Here is where the instant pot comes in handy for soups and stews that requires hours of cooking. I originally bought an instant pot right before the Pandemic. Since I didn’t have places to go, cooking has became a lot of people’s hobby including me. Instant pot was one of those kitchen appliances that I used a lot for soups. Gamjatang was one of those dishes I started making in instant pot along with pho broth which I will share later. This recipe is pretty simple to make and I love having the leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day.

I love having a big bowl of rice with my gamjatang because there is so much flavour in the gamjatang and it just makes the rice taste so much better. As long as these ingredients are in my pantry, it’s a very easy meal to make midweek, definitely great on colder days or when I’m sick.

I also do think that you can add other side dishes like marinated vegetables, salads. Sometimes during the week I get lazy so I keep this as a main dish with rice. As for the leftovers, depending on how much soup you have left, I would take the rest to use as soup base for hotpot. the

Important Gamjatang ingredients

There are few ingredients that are essential for gamjatang. These ingredients can be found in a local Korean store or ordered online. I’ve posted some pictures of what I have in my cupboards. Unfortunately there isn’t any way to substitute these ingredients as these are the workhorses of this soup. These should be widely available online if you can’t find it at local stores.

Gochujang: Korean red pepper paste
Gochugaru: Korean red pepper flakes
Deonjang: fermented soybean paste

Pro-tip

Use pork neck or back bone because it needs to be stewed. Ribs won’t taste good if stewed for long periods.
Soak the pork bones in water overnight in the fridge, it helps to cut down on prep the next day
Boil the neck bones to get rid of scum, helps to have a cleaner soup and taste before putting into instant pot.
Choose vegetables that are hardy so they don’t disappear when put into the soup e.g. napa cabbage, chrysanthemum leaves even watercress (not traditional but I like it).

Instant Pot Gamjatang

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Prep Time 30

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1 10

Course Dinner

Cuisine Korean

Servings 8 people

Equipment

6 quart Instant pot

Ingredients

3 lbs Pork neck or back bones

Gamjatang sauce

2 tbsp ginger minced
6 garlic cloves minced
4 tbsp deonjang (fermented soybean paste)
4 tbsp gochujang (red pepper paste)
4 tsp fish sauce
2 tbsp gochugaru red pepper paste
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup water added slowly

Vegetables

3 Yukon Potatoes
Napa cabbage
Chrysanthemum greens

Instructions

Soak the pork bones in cold water for at least 30 minutes or overnight to decrease prep time
In a small bowl combine all the ingredients for the gamjatang sauce. Add water at the end to combine everything
Discard the pork bone water. Add into a pot and fill with fresh water until it submerges the bones. Bring it to a boil.
When it comes up to a boil, let it cook for 10 minutes. There will be scum that floats to the top.
Discard the water and wash the pork bones, add into the instant pot
Add in sauce and water to the max on the instant pot indicator. Put the instant pot on soup function, with setting set to normal and high pressure for 20 minutes. Make sure to turn the knob so that it's not venting.
While waiting, peel and parboil your potatoes so that it's still firm but a knife and cut through it without using a lot of force. Set aside.
Wash your napa cabbage and chrysanthemum greens, set aside
After the instant is finished, you can either let it depressurize naturally or you can turn the knob to vent (BE CAREFUL, use a towel to turn the knob to avoid injury)
Once depressurized, remove the lid and turn on the saute feature. Add in the vegetables and boil for 10-15 minutes
Cut the green onions and crush the perilla seeds with mortar and pestle.
Serve pork bone soup with green onions and perilla seeds on top. You can serve it with rice.