Dolsot Bibimbap/Dolsot Bap (video)
“Stone Bowl Mixed Rice”
The first time I had my first morsel of this dish, it was love at first bite. This recipe is a very traditional Korean dish which would be served at every Korean restaurant alongside chili fried prawns ,Namul, Korean BBQmeats and more.
It is all about celebrating simple flavours, presented in this recipe as a melange of fresh vegetables and rice mixed together with a hint of chili paste and the sunny side up egg. Thin strips of beef marinated in soy, sesame oil, sugar and garlic can be added. Some restaurants serve it with a raw egg but I prefer mine fried.
The word“bibim” means “mixed” and “bap” means“cooked rice” so the dish is literally called mixed rice. The traditional method for preparing and serving this dish is in a “dolsot” or stone ware bowl. It is heated on the fire for about 20 minutes or until super-hot; then sesame oil is added and, immediately after, the rice. This searing sizzling heat gives the dish a yummy crispy crust that sticks to the bottom of the dolsot and is scraped with a spoon. In Syria when rice is cooked it often leaves this crust and we call it “ahta”. It is yummy!My brother, sister and I used to fight for it when we were young.
This dish is a great way to recycle old rice, it resembles stir-fried rice but cooked in the stone bowl. I don’t expect any of you to haveone of these bowls,my husband brought mine back from a trip to Seoul, but don’t fret as you can follow the same steps by cooking it in a wok or even a fry pan, what matters is the final flavour.
I have simplified the dish so much that it really does not take any time at all if you have old rice at hand; just make sure you heat the rice before adding it to the stone bowl to get cooking.
Ingredients:
Servings: 3
- 200 grams spinach leaf
- 50 grams bean sprouts
- 9 fresh shitake mushroom or dried
- 2 small zucchini
- 1 or 2 eggs
- 1/2 big carrot
- 2 1/2 cups cooked rice
- 1 1/2 tablespoons gochujang
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
Method:
• Put the stone bowl directly on a medium flame.
• Bring a pot of salted water to the boil.
• Slice the fresh mushrooms, zucchini and carrot as thinly as possible, as seen in the video, and remove the stems of the spinach and, if its leaves are too big, cut them into smaller pieces. If using dried mushrooms hydrated them in hot water for 30 minutes, squeeze the water out, remove the stem and slice
• Now you need to boil each vegetable separately for no more than 30 seconds each type except for the mushrooms.
• Start with carrots then remove, then the zucchini, then the bean sprouts, finishing with the baby spinach.
• Squeeze the water out of the spinach.
• If you are using old rice, heat it up first by any method you desire; if making fresh rice, make sure it is well salted.
• Fry the eggs sunny side up leaving it a bit runny as it will continue to cook in the stone bowl.
• Put a tablespoon of sesame oil in the stone bowl and add the hot rice.
• Assemble the vegetables neatly next to each other on top of the rice.
• Top with the gochujang chili paste and add the eggfinally on top.
• Serve in the bowl and,in front of your guests, mix it allup togetherwith extra gochujang on the side to add to taste.
Tips:
• If you don’t have a stone bowl, follow the exact same steps using a wok or a fry pan and
mix it all up.
• If you don’t have gochujang paste use this recipe: ½ cup harissa chili paste, 3/4 cup miso paste, ¾ cup water, ¾ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar and salt to taste. Melt the sugar in boiling water then mix all the other ingredients and adjust the salt.
• If you desire beef with it,just slice 100gof steak or fillet very thinly and marinade it for at least 1 hour in 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 minced garlic clove and 1 tablespoon sesame oil, then fry to your liking. Some restaurants put the beef raw as theheat of the stone bowl will cook it.
Per Serving : 767 Calories; 14g Fat (16.4% calories from fat); 16g Protein; 144g Carbohydrate; 6g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 307mg Sodium.