rice bowl

The last couple days have been a deep freeze, the kind where the high is in the teens and the wind seems to blow through your jeans (and bones). I decided to make something comforting and warm, but also fitting with my goal to eat healthy this week.

Now I know the idea of fried rice isn't really mind blowing, but right now my favorite meal is dolsot bibimbap. A korean dish that uses a hot stone bowl, rice and veggies with an egg (raw or fried) on top. You stir it all together with a spicy chili sauce and the bowl cook everything and makes the rice crunchy. I decided to try and replicate that taste in a simple and healthy way.

Today I also made a ton of brown rice, I cook brown rice in a pot like pasta for about 30 minutes, until it is still a tiny bit chewy, drain the water, cover with the lid and let it steam off heat for 15 minutes, then fluff. It makes the best rice and it also means you can make more than one cup at a time without messing it up.

I let the rice cool down and then divide it into one cup portions in freezer bags, flattened. They can be frozen and when I need some I can just take one out and run it under hot water to thaw it. I made around 12 cups of rice from about 4 cups uncooked.

My version of dolsot bibimbap
I guess it would be called just bibimbap because I don't have a stone bowl.

you can pretty much use any combo of veggies, frozen or fresh. I think the sesame oil, sriracha and egg are key to getting the same flavor. 


vegetable oil
sesame oil
soy sauce or fish sauce to taste to flavor (maybe 1/2 a tablespoon)
fresh broccoli florets (3/4 cup)
grated or finely chopped carrot (I grate them with my food processor)
1/2 cup snow peas, ends trimmed and halved
3/4 cup cooked brown rice
sriracha
fried egg (or scrambled, my husband likes it this way, he's not an runny egg yolk fanatic like me)




Use a tiny bit of vegetable oil (1 tablespoon) in a heavy-bottomed pot heated to medium-high, add in a teaspoon of sesame oil (gives it so much flavor) and put in the broccoli and stir fry for a couple minutes. Throw in a few shakes of soy sauce (this time I was out so I used fish sauce) and then put in the halved snow peas, grated carrots and brown rice. The idea is to use at least half veggies, and you want them to still be crisp, just warmed though.


Stir it around to get the rice crispy and meanwhile heat up a sauce pan to fry up an egg over easy. Get that going and stir in about a teaspoon of sriracha (or more or less to taste). Put the rice mixture in a bowl and top it with the egg (yolk still runny). The yolk gives the rice moisture and great flavor.