[irodguy]

Now that Korean food was mentioned, how about a good bimbimbap recipe. I did purchase a Rock Bowl but have yet to attempt a home version. With the temperature going down, I truly believe bimbimbap is one of the best winter time foods.

[eunny jang]

FRESH rice. Anyone who tells you to make bibimbap with old rice is wrong. Add raw or cooked beef (whatever floats your boat), oiled/marinated carrots, bellflower, spinach, mung bean sprouts, whatever you like. Heat your dolsot good and hot on a burner or in the oven. Scallions. Drop a raw egg yolk on top. Have plenty of gochu-jang, thinned with a stream of mirin iand some sesame oil, ready.

Variation: Rice, a mix of mildly spiced, braised seafood (squid, mussels, shrimp, octopus), a mixing sauce of soy thinned with mirin, sesame oil and scallions for haemul dolsot bibimbap.

Varioation II: Rice, veggies, plenty of flying fish roe for ahl-dolsot bibimbap.

If you're like me, wait a couple minutes after mixing but before eating, pass off the soft, warm mix to whoever's nearby, and scrape the bowl clean of crispy, crunchy, spicy bits of charred rice and vegetables.

[irodguy]

Yep the crunchy part at the bottom is the best part. Will have to try the flying fish eggs, I keep a box in the freezer for Sushi and topping seared Salmon.

[irodguy]

One more question; I know that most Koreans make their own variation of gochu-jang. Is there a decent premade version/brand that I can purchase at the Korean market?

[jschyun]

just a generation or two ago, people all made their own kochujang and duenjang and kimchi and stuff like that at home. Nowadays I don't know anyone who makes their own kochujang or duenjang. It's really smelly to make. The last person I knew that made it was my grandma. Oh wait, I think my mom said her friend made it.

Most people I know go to the store, buy gochujang and then doctor it up to suit their needs. The two brands that I know and like are Tehyangcho gochujang and Soonchang gochujang. I forget if the label is in english so if you can't find it, just ask someone for these two brands and they'll point it out to you. I'm sure any brand would be just fine though.

Some people don't like sesame oil, so that's optional. I have never heard of putting mirin in kochujang until reading this thread. Some people like to have bibimbap with mixed grain rice which just means that other grains like barley, wild rice, some kinds of beans were steamed along with the rice. Also,

For bibimbap, I take gochujang (red pepper paste) and mix with some vinegar (I like brown rice vinegar aka hyunmi shikcho) I also add a little sugar, the way some people do with spaghetti sauce. Unfortunately, I do this all to taste so I have no idea what the amounts are. I'll measure next time and get back to you. This is the most common way I know of doctoring the gochujang to go into bibimbap. The gochujang is then called "chojang" because it's been mixed with shikcho (vinegar). shikCHO + gochuJANG = chojang

when i have more time later, I might go into what constitutes my favorite toppings.

Most restaurants will not put in sesame oil into the gochujang. I see bottles that you are supposed to squeeze over your bibimbap to taste. I use very little.

[lorea]

I've seen a variety of dolsot bowls, but was told by my Korean friends that they're not all the same...some hold heat better and some don't (resulting in non-crispy rice!). Does anybody have a picture of the best types to get? I noticed that there are vastly different price ranges too (anywhere from $5/bowl - $25/bowl) - is it correct to assume you get what you pay for, in this case?

[torakris]

I love bibimbap and make some version of it at least once a month.
If you have some time check out the 3 page bibimbap thread:
http://forums.egulle...opic=10301&st=0

I use my kochujang straight with out mixing it with anything, a lot of restaurants here in Japan mix it with mirin and/or seame oil.

Toppings vary on the season, but everything is seasoned individually first before topping the rice, and I use a fried egg with an unset yolk, but if I was using a stone dolsot (which I don't own) I would just use a raw egg yolk

[irodguy]

Thanks looks like a good thread. I will go fetch ingredients this weekend and try it next week.

[jschyun]

lorea, on Oct 13 2004, 11:59 PM, said:

I've seen a variety of dolsot bowls, but was told by my Korean friends that they're not all the same...some hold heat better and some don't (resulting in non-crispy rice!).  Does anybody have a picture of the best types to get?  I noticed that there are vastly different price ranges too (anywhere from $5/bowl - $25/bowl) - is it correct to assume you get what you pay for, in this case?

That's a good question. I don't own any dolsot bowls because of major space issues. But I recall someone telling me that the ones to get have a metal band on top, because they are prone to cracking from the extreme variations in temperature that these bowls go through. I'll ask around to see if anyone has any and what their experiences are.

Sometimes though, expensive isn't necessarily better. Sometimes you just get ripped off. I would pick one that looked just like the restaurant version: thick stone, metal band around the top of the bowl. Hopefully it's not the most expensive one. But I haven't ever shopped for one, because there are so many decent restaurants here that I just can't justify the time.

[get in my belly]

deffinatly stone