Over the weekend, J and I went to visit our friend who just had a baby. As she was talking about all the food she can have now, she mentioned that she was craving 회덮밥 (hwe dup bap, or rice with leafy veggies and sashimi) the most.

On our way home, J said, “Great, now I’m craving 회덮밥.”

So we decided to stop at the grocery store to get the ingredients!

First, wash and chop up your greens. You can use almost any leafy greens – it’s all up to you! That night, I just grabbed a salad pack:

I usually add some sesame leaves too, but I forgot to pick that up. I also added some radish sprouts:

Next up is the fish. Some people add several kinds of sashimi but I usually only go with fluke. Since fresh fish is key to this dish, I never get pre-packaged or frozen fluke. At grocery stores with large seafood departments, you can pick the fish you want and ask them to filet it for you.

Cut the fish into small pieces and set it aside.

Then take a bowl of cooked rice and drizzle some sesame oil on top. You may also choose to add some sesame seeds.

Place your greens on top of the rice, then add the fish.

Add red pepper sauce (the same used in my 돌솥비빔밥 recipe), mix it up, and enjoy!

I had a very busy but fabulous day today! For details, please check my private blog.

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Today, I’ll teach you how to make 돌솥비빔밥 (dolsot bibimbap)…the easy way!

돌솥비빔밥 is one of my favorite dishes to order at Korean restaurants because it’s pretty difficult to screw up!

Now, you can be old-school and make all the different components from scratch, but I’ve seen first hand that this can take forever. The easiest thing to do is to purchase the ingredients pre-made at a Korean grocery store. You can buy them separately, or in a package especially made for 비빔밥 (bibimbap) like this:

As you can see, it even comes with small cups of beef and red pepper paste! Each package is good for about 3-4 servings so the $5.99 price tag isn’t too bad at all.

A key ingredient in 돌솥비빔밥 is the 돌솥 (dolsot), or stone pot. Most Korean grocery stores sell these in various sizes, and they’re not expensive…I think I got mine for under $10.

Drizzle some sesame seed oil to the bottom of the pot and fill it up with some pre-made rice:

My rice has some color because I put some extra grains in it. Obviously, plain white rice works too! Also, I should mention that older rice works a bit better than freshly cooked rice.

Place the ingredients on top and place on a stove. Soon, you will start hearing sizzling sounds as the oil starts to heat up the rice. If you’re like me like burnt rice, leave it on for a bit longer. You can check the progress by carefully lifting the bottom with a spoon.

That’s it! If you want to add an egg, fry one while the rice & veggies are cooking.

Although the pre-made package came with its own red pepper sauce, I used this instead:

There are many kinds of red pepper sauces available, and this one is specifically made with extra vinegar and corn syrup for that hot-sweet taste.

Mix up everything, and dig in!