Bap (rice dish)

Bap(Korean:밥)is a Korean name forcooked riceprepared by boilingriceor othergrains, such asblack rice,barley,sorghum, variousmillets, andbeans, until the water has cooked away.Special ingredients such as vegetables, seafood, and meat can also be added to create different kinds ofbap.In the past, except for the socially wealthy class, people used to eat mixed grain rice together with beans and barley rather than only rice.
In Korea, grain food centered on rice has been the most commonly used since ancient times and has established itself as a staple food in everyday diets.
In Korean, the honorific terms forbap(meal) includejinji(진지) for an elderly person,sura(수라) for amonarch, andme(메) for the deceased (in theancestral rites).
Traditionally,bapwas made usinggamasot(가마솥, acast ironcauldron) for a large family; however, in modern times, an electronicrice cookeris usually used to cook rice. A regular heavy-bottomed pot ordolsot(돌솥, stone pot) can also be used. Nowadays, rice cooked ingamasotordolsotare calledsotbap, and are considered delicacies. Morenurungji(누룽지, scorched rice) is produced when makinggamasot-bap(cast iron cauldron rice) anddolsot-bap(stone pot rice).
To makebap, rice is scrubbed in water and rinsed several times. This process producestteumul(뜨물, water from the last washing of rice).It is then soaked for thirty minutes before boiling, which helps the grains cook evenly. With unpolishedbrown riceand bigger grains such asyulmu(율무, Coix lacryma-jobivar.ma-yuen), it is necessary to soak the grains for several hours to overnight to avoid undercooking. The grains are then cooked. In a regular heavy-bottomed pot, rice can be cooked over medium high heat with the lid on for about ten minutes, stirred, and then left to simmer on low heat for additional five to ten minutes.
The scorched rice in the bottom of the pot or cauldron,nurungji, can be eaten as snacks or used to makesungnyung(숭늉, an infusion made from boiling scorched rice).
Bap refers to Korean cooked rice. Bap is a popular staple dish in Korea and also signifies the Culinary Corpus of Koreans (Chung et al.  2017). The Bap meal offers significant nutrition and energy and is widely considered as medicinal by many Koreans. It has high stickiness and sheen, hence easy to digest due to possession of adequate moisture (Chung et al.  2017). As a result, the Bap meal signifies the Korean cultural concern for medicinal aid from natural products rather than artificial ones. The dish remains one of the most popular in the Korean Cuisine due to its uniqueness from normal cooked rice and added nutritional values.The most basicbapmade of rice is calledssalbap(쌀밥, "rice bap"), or often justbap. As rice itself occurs in colours other than white, thebapmade of all white rice is calledhuinssal-bap(흰쌀밥, "white rice bap") orssalbap. When black rice is mixed, it is calledheungmi-bap(흑미밥, "black ricebap").
When cooked with allbrown rice(unpolished rice) or white rice mixed with brown rice, it is calledhyeonmi-bap(현미밥, "brown ricebap"), whilebapcooked with allglutinous riceor white rice mixed with glutinous rice is calledchapssal-bap(찹쌀밥, "glutinous ricebap"). Unpolished glutinous rice can also be used to cookbap,in which case it is calledhyeonmi-chapssal-bap(현미찹쌀밥, "brownglutinous ricebap").
Bapmade of regular non-glutinouswhite rice(polished rice) can be referred to asbaekmi-bap(백미밥, "white ricebap") when compared tohyeonmibap, and asmepssal-bap(멥쌀밥, "non-glutinous rice bap") when compared tochalbap/chapssalbap.
Bapmade of rice mixed with various other grains is calledjapgok-bap(잡곡밥, "multi-grain rice"). On the day ofDaeboreum, the first full moon of theyear, Koreans eatogok-bap(오곡밥, "five-grain rice") made ofglutinous rice,proso millet,sorghum,black beans, andred bean, orchalbap(찰밥, "sticky rice") made ofglutinous rice,red bean,chestnut,jujube, andblack beans.
When rice is mixed with one other grain, thebapis named after the mixed ingredient. The examples are:
Some grains can be cooked without rice.Bapmade ofbarleywithout rice is calledkkong-bori-bap(꽁보리밥), whilebapmade of both rice and barley is calledbori-bap(보리밥).
Byeolmi-bap(별미밥, "special delicacy rice") orbyeolbap(별밥, "special rice") can be made by mixing in special ingredients such as vegetables, seafood, and meat.For example,namul-bap(나물밥, "namulrice") is made of rice mixed withnamulvegetables.Some popularbyeolmibapvarieties include:
There are many bap dishes such asbibimbap(비빔밥, "mixed rice"),bokkeum-bap(볶음밥, "fried rice") andgimbap(김밥, "seaweed rice").