the little stone

My mom’s beoseot bap has become one of my favorite recipes. The steaming rice, warm and meaty mushrooms, slightly bitter crown daisy, savory seasoned soy sauce, and mildly sweet dates.

For this updated version of the recipe, I replaced rice with a farro and barley mix, and I added fried eggs!

Though you might not be familiar with some of the ingredients, the recipe is pretty easy to follow. Just keep an eye on the pot!

Ingredients (makes about 4 servings):

• 10-15 pieces of crown daisy
• 8 large, dried shitake mushroom (we used dried mushroom to make sure the mushroom has some body and chew after being cooked)
• 1.5 cups of uncooked rice
  • You can substitute the rice for farro and/or barley, which is what I did. I used a mix of 3/4 cup of farro and 3/4 cup of barley for 4 servings.
• Sesame seeds
• Red pepper powder
• Sesame oil
• Soy sauce
• Minced garlic (amount depends on your preference)
• 2-3 pieces of scallion
• Dried jujube dates (optional)
  • We used 9!
• 2 eggs (optional)
• 1 red chili pepper (optional)

When I made this dish on my own, I made extra servings so I could take some home to my mom. So the images below picture ingredients for about 8 servings!

Directions for the rice:

• Wash the rice until the water runs clear
• Soak the rice for about 2 hours
• Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms for about 2 hours or until they’re soft and pliable

• As the grains and mushrooms soak, slice the dates, and prepare the crown daisy (ssukgat) and seasoned soy sauce (yangnyeom ganjang)!
• Slice the dates lengthwise and don’t worry about removing the pits.

Directions for the crown daisy (ssukgat):

• Boil some water, then stick the crown daisy in stem first. Hold the stems there for about 10-15 seconds, then drop the entire crown daisy in for just 2-3 seconds.
• Blanch the crown daisy so it doesn’t wilt too much!
• Chop the crown daisy, then mix it with sesame oil (my mom used wild sesame oil) and sesame seeds. Set aside!

Directions for the seasoned soy sauce (yangnyeom ganjang):

• Note: Seasoned soy sauce appears in a lot of Korean dishes, like fried tofu, steamed tofu, kimchi bap, muk, etc.

• Finely chop 2-3 pieces of scallion. I ended up using 6-7 because I was making extra servings to give to my mom.
• Optional: Add one finely chopped hot red chili pepper.
• Add the minced garlic and scallion to a small glass bowl (with a lid). I recommend using a glass bowl because this soy sauce is pretty strong and might leave a permanent smell in a plastic bowl!
• Pour soy sauce into the bowl until it’s just a little over halfway full.
• Add a splash or two of sesame oil.
• Then, add sesame seeds and red pepper powder (again, the amount depends on your preference).
• Give it all a good stir and set aside! You can keep leftovers in the fridge. Just make sure to keep it covered.

• After a couple of hours, the grains and mushrooms should be ready to go.
• Squeeze the water out of the mushrooms, then slice them. I left in the stems, but you can rip them out, too. Just make sure you don’t discard the water they’ve been soaking in and that you’ve squeezed out of them!

• Place the rice in a pot.
• Then, pour the mushroom water into the pot so it ends up sitting about 1/2 inch above the rice.
• Place the mushrooms and dates in a layer above the rice.

• Cover the pot and place it on high until it starts to boil. When it starts to boil, lower the heat to medium and keep it there until the water starts to simmer away. Once the water has simmered away, put the heat on low for about 5-10 minutes. If you want that crispy rice (nurungji) on the bottom of the pan, I’d suggest leaving it on low for 6-10 minutes. If you don’t care for the nurungji, keep the pot on low for only 5-6 minutes.

Directions for putting it altogether:

• Turn off the heat and give the rice and mushroom a good stir. If you kept it on the heat longer for that crispy rice (nurungji), keep in mind you’ll only be to mix up the rice sitting on top of the crispy layer. When you’re finished eating, you can break off a piece of the crispy rice (nurungji) and eat it as a little dessert!
• When I made this on my own in my apartment, I let the mushroom rice sit in the pot overnight. I then scooped half of it into a plastic container to take to my mom later that day.
• But for myself, I fixed up a bowl for breakfast by first microwaving some of the mushroom rice.
• While it was heating up, I fried two eggs.
• I then put a few spoonfuls of the crown daisy (ssukgat) and drizzled some of the seasoned soy sauce on top of the rice.
• After mixing everything together, I topped off the bowl with the eggs and mixed that in too.

Thank you for reading! I hope this recipe expanded your perception of Korean food, and I hope you try making it at home! If so, tell me how it goes and send me some pics either in the comments below or on Instagram @thelittlestoneblog.