Rice with Korean BBQ (and other stuff) — Bibimbap from Seoul Brothers

out of the house — the most delicious rice with kimchi and Korean barbecue and a crispy runny egg.

It's bibimbap, as prepared by Seoul Brothers, a food stall at Marble City Market in Knoxville,

Tennessee. They do a fusion of Korean and Southern US food.

Coates: I grew up in a biracial family in East Tennessee,

and it was interesting to see how all of our friends would have all of these different dishes

that we would actually want to make at home, but we only had really Korean ingredients. So

it was either Korean, or Southern food with our father, so we just meshed the two together as

we grew up. Adam:

Chef Josh Coates is going to show us how he does the bap bowl at Seoul Brothers, and simultaneously

I will show you a simplified version of the dish that I worked out at home. My simplified home

version is what you'll find in the description. Coates:

So bap is actually rice. In Korean it translates to rice, and bibimbap translates to mix mix rice.

The whole idea behind the entire dish is that you have all these different, fresh ingredients that

you just mix together. Adam:

First step obviously is to make rice. They use short grain rice,

and they do it in a big professional rice cooker. How should I cook my rice at home in a pot?

Coates: I would say what the instructions say,

because I'm not entirely sure. I've used one of these my whole life.

Adam: Fair enough. I've got half a cup,

a hundred grams of short grain rice per person. And I'm washing off the outer free starch coat.

Swish and drain, swish and drain. And then I'll actually soak the rice in water for about a half

hour. This is common for Korean-style plain rice. Drain again, and then put in the cooking water.

One-to-one water-to-rice is what works for me with my short grain rice, but every rice is a

little different. No salt, no nothing. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat until it's

not boiling over anymore, and leave covered until everything is absorbed, maybe 20 minutes total.

Turn the heat off, and then I like to let it rest for at least 10 minutes before fluffing.

Resting gets you a product much closer to rice cooker rice. Now the real magic happens at Seoul

Brothers. Coates:

So what we use here is a jalapeño cilantro lime dressing, just to give it a little bit of a green,

fresh, vibrant flavor, which is not traditional, but really just adds a depth of flavor to the

entire dish. Adam:

Yeah, to me, this dressing is the defining feature of their dish. Amazing. They start by removing the

ribs and seeds from jalapeños, so that's what I'm doing. They do this in a food processor,

but I'm going to just use a knife since I'm only making a little bit. I'll start by dicing the

pepper finely. Then I'll bring in a whole bunch of cilantro and start chopping all of that as fine

as I can, then I'll sprinkle over some coarse salt. This will help me grind this down into a

paste with the side of my knife. Then just stir in enough fresh lime juice to get a thick, saucy

texture. I used three limes for this much stuff. Stir a spoonful or two of that per portion into

the rice right before you eat. The green color will start to fade immediately on that hot rice.