(Korean) Dolsot Bibimbap 비빔밥

Okay, guys, this is a good chance to learn how to cook a really authentic and delicious Korean dish at home. It is a great recipe that I've come across that tastes amazingly scrumptious. Because of all the pictures below, you might think it's going to take forever or difficult to fix but that's not true. Really, you just need a few minutes to cook all the vegetables in oil. I used variety of vegetables and some meat but you can choose to which vegetables to use and you don't have to use the meat, either. Some ingredients might be hard to find at your local grocery store, but if you have an oriental grocery store, make a trip there and find some of the greatest Asian ingredients there, such as Korean red pepper paste (I recommend Samyang or CJ brand), Bulgogi sauce (CJ), a stone pot or a clay pot. You'll also find the best sticky rice (short grain) and some of the best sauces and pastes there. Usually the prices aren't too expensive, either. I get all my famous Korean brand ingredients at a local oriental market.


Dolsot Bibimbap 비빔밥
Adapted from Tasty Meals at Home

Ingredients:

• ready cooked rice
• red pepper paste (gochu jang)
• zucchini
• carrot
• mushrooms (white or brown or shitake)
  
• spinach
• minced garlic
• bulgogi (read previous entry on how to cook this)
• egg
• soy sauce, salt and pepper, sesame oil, sugar, sesame seeds, white rice vinegar, oil, red pepper flakes
• stone pot/clay pot (for dol sot style; however, if you don't have one of these, feel free to use a regular medium sized sauce pan or a pot)
  
• Note: remember, quantity really does not matter in this dish, it’s just how much of it you want in your dish.
  

Direction:

1. Bulgogi (Korean BBQ)

Prepare Bulgogi as shown in the link. If you prefer homemade bulgogi recipe, click here. In Korea, you will find many Bibimbap dishes just with variety of vegetables. So if you prefer the dish without the meat, that's totally fine. It's entirely up to you and your appetite. If you want to use the sauce, it's way easy to prepare it. I usually marinade it for about 12 hours before cooking it, however, if you don't have a lot of time, you can skip the marinade and just cook the meat in a pan.
2. Carrots

Thinly slice the carrots. Add in a dash of rice vinegar, a dallop of red pepper paste, a few generous sprinkles of red pepper flakes and sugar. Mix and set aside.


3. Spinach

Boil water into a bowl and flash boil your spinach–put in a handful of spinach and immediately turn off the heat and drain. Add in 1 teaspoon of minced garlic, a tiny dash of soy sauce, a tiny dash of sesame oil, salt, and pepper.

4. Zucchini

Cut in half moon slices. you will only need about 1/4-1/3 cup per dish. Put a little oil on a heated pan and saute with salt&pepper, 1/2 tablespoon of garlic, and a dash of sesame oil.

5. Mushroom

Thinly slice mushrooms. On heated pan with oil, saute mushrooms with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Now, we're almost there.. Just need to plate the dish in the pot. Heat your pot over medium-low heat. Put about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil onto the bowl. This is to keep your rice from sticking to the bowl. Put the rice on, about 1-2 cups of cooked rice.

Top the rice with all your delicious toppings, shown in the pictures above.

Allow the bowl to be over the heat for an additional 10 minutes. Top it with a generous amount of red pepper paste. If you want, you can also crack a raw egg yolk (or fry over easy or over hard) and top the dish off. Remove from heat with caution! (Now, if you cook the rice over the stone or clay pot, you'll get the nice, crispy rice on the bottom and it gives a crunch bite.)

Mix them all up and enjoy!!