bibimbap

Bibimbap literally means ‘mixed up rice’ and is a traditional comfort food in Korea usually served in a warm stone bowl. I first tasted this delicacy many years ago at a Korean restaurant in Santa Clara, CA. I fell in love with the dish.

It starts, of course, with warm rice. I use Korean rice as it always cooks to the perfect sticky texture.

There are many varieties of bibimbap and when made at home it usually includes whatever vegetables that are on hand at the moment. It also includes some grilled marinated beef. Our sirloin was marinated with soy, sesame oil, vinegar and a little sugar before grilling. Most of the vegies here are quickly sautéed and some are raw. We have cucumbers (raw), zucchini, red onions, carrots, spinach and garlic, and shitake mushrooms.

The vegetables were carefully placed on top of the rice putting complimentary colors next to each other to show off the variety of foods. The beef was placed on top.

I like the traditional way of seving a fried egg on top with a runny yolk, of course.

The dish was garnished with green onion. It is also served with sesame seeds and a spicy chili sauce made from gochujang paste, soy, sesame oil, vingegar and sugar.

That’s it! Mix it all up together and eat.

Bap (or bop) in Korean means rice. Bi bim means to ‘mix up’. Bi bim bap means to mix up stuff with rice. Traditionally in Korea this usually includes bulgogi style beef, various vegetables including bean sprouts, spinach, carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers among others, and always with a fried egg on top. This is mixed up with a spicy sauce and flavored with sesame oil and sesame seeds. Some of the vegetables are raw and some are cooked and marinated with sesame oil, garlic and soy. It is also traditionally served in a heated stone bowl. My take on it this time is hardly traditional on may fronts. I probably have vegetables that are not used commonly, I don’t have a special stone bowl to put on the fire, and after last evening’s t-bones I left out the beef. The flavor, however, is still quite good.

I began preparing this dish early in the day. I steamed some mung bean sprouts just until tender. I did the same with baby spinach leaves; steamed just until they were wilted. These were marinated with a mixture of chopped garlic, soy sauce and sesame oil. I didn’t measure anything, so bear with me. I just splashed some together. I also hydrated some dried shitake mushrooms by boiling in a bit of water for about an hour. These were cooled and sliced. Other vegetables included raw carrots, raw green peppers and sliced romaine lettuce. These were all assembled on top of a bed of sticky Thai brown rice. An egg fried in sesame oil was placed on top.

Before mixing this all up I added some sesame oil, sesame seeds and a spicy sauce. The sauce was made with gochujang paste (about 2 tbsp), rice vinegar (about 1/4 cup), soy sauce (about 1/4 cup), water (about 2 tbsp) and sesame oil (about 2 tbsp). Just mix everything together well and enjoy.