Campfire Bibimbap

HERE AT DIRTY GOURMET, we are excited about how popular our national parks are these days, especially since that means more people falling in love with the outdoors. On the other hand, it’s become really difficult to get a campsite. So we’ve gotten into the habit of reserving sites, sometimes up to six months in advance. A lot of times we’ll forget about our reservations and suddenly realize there’s a “surprise planned” camping trip. Not complaining about that part!

On one of these trips, we experimented with a paella recipe, and discovered how effective Dutch ovens are for cooking rice. That got us thinking about bibimbap, a Korean rice dish cooked in a hot stone pot that creates a glorious layer of crispy rice at the bottom. The rice is then topped with a variety of fresh and cooked ingredients, and then tossed with gochujang, an addictive sweet and spicy fermented chili sauce.

The hotter the fire, the faster the rice will cook, so load up the lid with as many coals as will fit in one layer. If you can get the water to a boil, you will be rewarded with fluffier rice. If you don’t, the rice will still cook, but it may turn out a little softer and stickier. – MAI-YAN KWAN

CAMPFIRE BIBIMBAP

Yield: 6 to 8 servings Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes

YOU WILL NEED

Ingredients:

• 3 cups medium grain rice

• 4 cups water

• 2 cups sliced mushrooms

• 2 cups spinach, roughly chopped

• 1 cup bean sprouts

• 1 cup kimchi

• 1 cup julienned carrots

For the mushrooms:

• ¼ cup soy sauce

• 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar

• 4 tsp. brown sugar

For the chili sauce:

• ¼ cup gochujang

• 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. brown sugar

• 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

• 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar

• 2 tsp. sesame oil

• 2 tsp. soy sauce

For serving: •Sesame seeds

Tools:

• Car Camping Base Kit

• 12-inch Dutch oven

• Lid lifter

• 10-inch cast iron skillet

• Small mixing bowl

• Heatproof gloves

DIRECTIONS

AT HOME:

1. Prepare the mushroom sauce: in a small leakproof container, combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, and brown sugar. Prepare the chili sauce: in a small leakproof container, combine gochujang, brown sugar, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce.

AT CAMP: 2. In the Dutch oven, mix rice and water together. Place the Dutch oven over a bed of about 10 coals and cover. Place about 14 to 18 coals on top of the lid. Cook until rice has absorbed the water, about 15 to 20 minutes. Check on the rice after 10 minutes, and then every 5 minutes until cooked through. When done, remove the lid and place the Dutch oven on the grate of the campfire over medium heat.

3. Meanwhile, add the mushrooms to a cast iron skillet on the grate of the campfire. Add the prepared mushroom sauce, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms have absorbed all the liquid. Set aside.

4. Directly into the Dutch oven, spoon the mushrooms, spinach, bean sprouts, kimchi, and carrots into piles around the top of the rice. Pour the prepared chili sauce in the center of it all. Garnish with sesame seeds.

5. Gather everyone around to ooh and ah at the beauty, and then stir the whole thing together.

6. Serve (or eat) straight from the Dutch oven, scraping the bottom each time to include some crispy rice in each serving. Keep the Dutch oven heating on the grate so that second servings will have even more crispy rice.

Excerpted with permission from Dirty Gourmet: Food For Your Outdoor Adventures (Skipstone, April 2018) by Aimee Trudeau, Emily Nielson, and Mai-Yan Kwan.

BY AIMEE TRUDEAU, EMILY NIELSON AND MAI-YAN KWAN