Bibimbap--Cook-off 14

[Susan in FL]

Kathy, it looks delicious, and it's beautiful. You've moved this up a notch on my priority list.

[torakris]

These pictures are gorgeous! I am really getting hungry for bibibbap and it is only 6:00am.

I have only 4 cups of short grain rice left and I was hoping to stretch it until Tuesday when I go to Costco. I don't think I am going to make it.....

[Chris Amirault]

Just bought two granite dolsots -- now what? Clean 'em, heat them in the oven? Or on top of the electric stove?

edited to add: Went with the oven; here's the results over on my foodblog!

Edited October 13, 2005 by chrisamirault (log)

[Chris Amirault]

So, I have a question. How do you cook rice in your dolsots? Don't you need a tight seal to cook rice? The two granite ones I have do have bases that seem like bakelite or something, but they may just be plastic, and I can't imagine they'd make a tight seal. Ideas?

[slkinsey]

I "cured" my dolsots by rubbing them with oil and baking them in the oven (repeated this a few times).

I've never cooked rice in mine, but I do heat them over my gas stove, add cooked rice and the vegetables and let the whole thing sit on the flame for 5 minutes or so. As you can see, I get good crisping of the rice (better than I have usually had in restaurants, actually).

I'm not sure how it would work with electric. Probably would make sense to use a flame tamer just to spread the heat around.

I would think you could effectively seal the dolsots for rice cooking by putting a heavy oven-friendly ceramic plate on the top of each one while it was on the stove. I don't think the "seal" has to be any better than that. Remember, you're trying to crisp the bottom anyway.

[chef koo]

So, I have a question. How do you cook rice in your dolsots? Don't you need a tight seal to cook rice? The two granite ones I have do have bases that seem like bakelite or something, but they may just be plastic, and I can't imagine they'd make a tight seal. Ideas?

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just the way you'd normally do it. add the rice and water, bring to a boil, cover and steam on low heat for 20 minutes. but for dolsot bibimbap, the purpose of the dolsot isn't really to cook the rice in. after your rice is cooked you want to put it into a hot dolsot. if you just steam it in a dolsot it might turn brown on the bottom but it won't be crisp. you basically want to heat a dolsot as hot as your stove will allow. then put the rice in.

[torakris]

I just couldn't put it off any longer!

I made bibimbap last night...

..with the cheapest vegetables I could find in the supermarket.

So it included mizuna (raw, seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, vinegar, chile flakes and garlic), king oyster mushrroms (sauteed with seame oil and sesame seeds with a splash of sauce at the end), carrots (sauteed with sesame oil and sesame seeds) and ground beef with the marinade I posted above.

It is topped with a fried egg (yolk still raw) and kochujang (mixed with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce and mirin and water to make it easier to mix into the rice).

The rice is brown rice.

This was one of the best version I have ever made!

after mixing

[Grub]

simple..

very old, cheap digital camera.. room lit by candlelight and only 1 lamp.. switch off the flash on the camera.. camera adjusts to the low light and the shutter stays open for a very long time.. add 1 impatient husband who can't wait to dig in.. and voila!

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That's really amazing -- you mean to say it was an unplanned, and more or less accidental picture? It's a great shot. My hat's off to ya. Keep taking more pictures.

[torakris]

After I uploaded the picture of my bibimbap to imagegullet, I m not sure what I did but when I went to turn my computer off, I had a bit of surprise

My beautiful Stonehenge scene had been replaced by a bowl of bibimbap!

I couldn't figure out how to change it back so I left it up. Now after a couple days I sort of like it.

[Chris Amirault]

It's bee-you-tee-full!

[lperry]

Dolsot question:

I was in Super H today and they have both bowls and lids made of stone. Do you need a lid? There were significantly fewer lids than bowls, and they were priced separately. Is the lid for another dish?

Thanks.

Linda

[touaregsand]

Dolsot question:

I was in Super H today and they have both bowls and lids made of stone.  Do you need a lid?  There were significantly fewer lids than bowls, and they were priced separately.  Is the lid for another dish?

Thanks.

Linda

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You need a lid if you plan on cooking the rice in the dolsot. Traditionally the rice is cooked in the dolsot.

[Chris Amirault]

Ok, let's see a dolsot cover being used, folks!

[chefzadi]

Okay not quite in use, imagine it on the stove top.

[Chris Amirault]

Is it made of the same material as the dolsot?

[chefzadi]

that's a dolsot. and the lid is made from the same material as the vessel.

[Chris Amirault]

Cook-off XV: Chili.

[little ms foodie]

eeek!!! I'm still trying to find time for this one and now you throw chili at me!! both sound like perfect yummy dishes for Seattle fall.

[suzilightning]

johnnybird just got home from a business trip. he had blackberried me that they were stopping to eat in a korean restaurant just south of baltimore. he just got home and had "leftovers". couldn't remember what the name of what he had but said it was rice, a lot of greens, a tiny bit of beef and an egg on top. the hostess/owner who didn't speak much english had to come over to encourage him to mix it up - ahhhhhh bibimbap!! he also said there was a "brown sauce" they brought him. ideas?

he also said they brought out "appetizers" cucumbers that were "soft" or marinated, onions, kimchee that was hot, sprouts, sweet potatoes with a brown sauce on it, flat pieces of fish and some others.

shoot - i was hoping for bulgogi leftovers

guess i'm going to have to try this one in the near future since johnnybird is now one up on me

[Pan]

The brown sauce, if it was more of a dark red/brown, was Gojuchang (I think I spelled that right), aka Korean hot sauce.

[Xiaogao]

My husband and I like to make Korean bibimbap, which he first encountered while living in Japan, when he became friends with a Japanese-Korean family who owned a restaurant. The technique they used was to put the raw beef and eggs into the stone pot, atop the (partially cooked?) rice and then put it all into the oven to cook together.

But every recipe I've ever seen instructs you to saute the beef first. Has anyone ever encountered a true "one-pot" bibimbap? I've been curious about this for a long time.

thanks!

Juliette

[nakji]

Perhaps the recipes you found were for Jeonju style bibimbap, and not dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap?

Jeonju style bibimbap calls for the already cooked ingredients to be presented in a bowl (usually stainless steel at the places I ate!) and mixed with no further cooking. With Dolsot bibimbap, the stone pot continues to cook the ingredients after they've been put in. But every place I ever ate it, they heated the stone pot up on a gas ring - I never saw an oven in a traditional Korean restaurant - and when they thought it was hot enough, added the cooked rice, sauteed veg, and already cooked beef. My favourite place used to top it all with a raw egg, but this was fairly uncommon. I'm not sure if it was for food safety reasons or not, but most places served it with a fried egg. This could be why most recipes get you to cook the beef first. If you get your stone pot hot enough, though, I don't see a reason why you couldn't use good quality thinly sliced beef, and let the pot cook it.

This strikes me as something my Korean cooking mentor Mrs. Lee would have done to save dishes and time. (She also added soy sauce to her japchae cooking water - another great tip!) If you remember how they did it, why not just try doing it that way and see what happens?

[Xiaogao]

If you remember how they did it, why not just try doing it that way and see what happens?

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Well, we do do it that way, on the stovetop -- but I have to say our bibimbap is not particularly authentic! In fact, we used to just make it in the rice cooker -- let the rice cook until the water was reduced, then crack in a couple eggs, let them set, and serve with kimchi and kochujang.... we were operating according to the spirit ("stir-up rice"), if not the letter, of bibimbap. Last night I made it with some leftover rare sliced steak, which is what got me thinking (and posting to this forum).

We've wondered if maybe those particular Korean cooks my husband knew were making their hometown version of the dish. I guess we'll never know!

[sjemac]

A few years late but:

Venison Bibimbap:

Watercress, carrots, Mushrooms, green onions, kimchi, bean sprouts, venison flank marinated in Bulgogi marinade, Ngo Om and korean bean paste.

Put together -- Raw egg yolk hidden under bean paste.

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[Ce'nedra]

This reminds me -still need to get my dolsot! Haven't yet been successful in finding it!