To do: Korean cooking workshop
Through Instagram, I got in touch with Wonko and Randy from Korean Kitchen. They organize cooking workshops in Amsterdam where you learn all the basics of Korean cuisine. There. I. Had. To. Be. There. For years, I’d wanted to make bibimbap myself, but I had no idea where to start. Well, with them, as it turns out.
We start with Korean pancakes with a citrus-sesame dressing. The great thing about this knockout snack is that you can vary the ingredients endlessly, as long as you use potato, onion and cornstarch. For spicy pancakes, for example, add kimchi, or go for extra savory with dried shrimp (ebi). Now that I think about it: I’m going to make them again tonight—I have everything I need at home.
Bulgogi and spicy chicken
Next, we prepare the marinade for the beef bulgogi and the spicy marinated chicken. Asian pear goes into the chicken marinade; it contains an enzyme that makes the meat wonderfully tender. For the bulgogi, we use thinly sliced ribeye from the butcher. Later that evening, we grill the bulgogi and the chicken on a Korean tabletop barbecue. How do you eat it? Take a lettuce leaf, add some rice, the meat, various banchan (Korean side dishes, such as kimchi and spicy cucumber) and some ssamjang (spicy sauce), then put the whole thing in your mouth as quickly as possible. Believe me, this is pretty close to heaven on earth.
Bibimbap
But really: I came for the bibimbap. I thought it would be quite difficult to make, but it turned out to be much easier than expected. Randy and Wonko’s recipe is crystal clear, and they constantly point out what to pay attention to. You cook the rice in advance, for example, and once you have all the topping ingredients ready (chopped and all), all that remains is to briefly fry them and assemble the dolsot.
The dolsot?
A dolsot is a granite stone bowl that you place on the heat and use to crisp up the rice. Do you start to smell the toasted rice, and is it sizzling all around? Then loosen the rice from the dolsot with chopsticks and toss all the toppings together. Dinner is served!
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