Dolsot Bibimbap

Bibimbap in a stone bowl heated empty until it smokes, so the rice pressed against it forms a crust you scrape up as you eat.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg. Vegetarian only if you leave out the optional beef.

Ingredients

For each bowl

• steamed short-grain rice, as on its own page, hot
• the seasoned vegetables from the bibimbap page, as on its own page
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• gochujang sauce, as on the bibimbap page

Equipment

• 1 dolsot or other flameproof stone or cast-iron bowl per person

Method

1. THE STONE BOWL IS HEATED EMPTY UNTIL A DROP OF WATER SKITTERS ACROSS IT. Five to eight minutes over a medium flame, dry, with nothing in it. That is the whole dish: the bowl has to be hot enough to fry the rice it touches, and a bowl that is merely warm gives you a cooling bibimbap in a heavy dish and no crust at all. The water test is the only reliable one -- the bowl looks the same cold and screaming.
2. THEN SESAME OIL GOES ROUND THE SIDES AND THE RICE IS PRESSED AGAINST THEM. Oil swirled to coat, rice in, and pressed firmly up the walls with the back of a spoon so as much of it as possible is in contact with the stone. The crust forms where rice meets hot oiled stone and nowhere else.
3. AND THEN IT IS LEFT ALONE FOR FOUR OR FIVE MINUTES. You will hear it crackling. Stirred or lifted to check, the crust never sets, and once the toppings are on the bowl is going to the table anyway.
4. THE VEGETABLES ARE THE SAME AS FOR THE BIBIMBAP ON THIS SITE, each cooked and seasoned separately, and that page has them. This one is about the bowl.
5. THE EGG GOES IN RAW, straight onto the hot rice, and cooks where it sits while the bowl travels. A fried egg laid on top instead is perfectly good and is the flat-bowl version.
6. THE BOWL IS DANGEROUSLY HOT FOR TEN MINUTES and must go to the table on a wooden base. Say so plainly: it will burn anything it is set on and anyone who touches it.
7. Steamed rice made as on its own page and kept hot.
8. The vegetables prepared as on the bibimbap page, each seasoned separately, and the gochujang sauce mixed.
9. The dolsot set over a medium flame, EMPTY and dry, 5 to 8 MINUTES, until a flicked drop of water skitters and vanishes.
10. The sesame oil poured in and swirled up the sides.
11. The hot rice tipped in and PRESSED firmly against the base and walls with the back of a spoon.
12. Left on the heat 4 to 5 MINUTES, undisturbed, until it can be heard crackling.
13. The vegetables arranged in sections on top, the raw egg slid into the middle.
14. The bowl lifted onto a wooden base with both hands and cloths, and taken straight to the table.
15. The sauce added and the whole thing mixed hard at the table, scraping the crust up off the bottom and sides as you go. The crust is the reason for the bowl.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes