Bibimbap

The first time I heard of "bibimbap" was through the Pinoy Big Brother - Teen Clash 2010. One of the Korean housemate, Jenny, said she wanted some bibimbap, and a few weeks ago, I thought of finding a recipe for it. I stumbled upon the Maangchi website, and through it, I based my recipe.

It called for kosari, but the supermarket's international section didn't have it. It also called for spinach, but the rainy season must've hindered the spinach to grow, and I just can't find any! Well, I have heard that there's a Kongnamul Bibimbap (sprouts bibimbap), so even without two ingredients, I still went on to cook it, after all, I already have the zucchini in the fridge, and if I let it stay there longer, it might not be fresh anymore.

Bibimbap is a Korean recipe that meant "mixed rice."




Bibimbap
{serves 2}

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized carrot, julienned
• 1 small zucchini, julienned
• dried shiitake mushrooms
  
• 1 cup bean sprouts
• 200 grams ground beef
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• spring onions, chopped
  
• 2 eggs, cooked sunny side up
• salt
  
• soy sauce
• sesame oil
• sugar
• vegetable oil
• 2 cups cooked rice
  

Directions

• Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water for about 10 minutes. While waiting for it to rehydrate, prepare all your ingredients. It's very important that all are ready before you started cooking. When the mushrooms are already okay, slice each thinly.
  
• Cook bean sprouts in water and a pinch of salt for about 7 - 10 minutes. Drain, and mix some minced garlic into the sprouts. Set aside.
• Sprinkle and mix in some salt into the zucchini, and let it rest for a while. Heat up a little vegetable oil in a pan and stir fry the zucchini. When it turned translucent, transfer the zucchini in the platter.
• In the same pan, heat up a little oil and saute the mushroom. Add some soy sauce and some sugar (depends on your liking, I guess) and saute until mushrooms are cooked. Drop some sesame oil and stir a bit before placing it in the platter.
  
• Heat oil and saute ground beef. Add minced garlic, and season with soy sauce, sugar, and ground pepper. Add some drops of sesame oil before placing in the platter.
• To plate: In a bowl, place a cup of rice in the middle, and surround it with the rest of the cooked ingredients. In my bowl, I placed about two heaping tablespoons of each, except the mushrooms, which I only put about a tablespoon. Top the rice with sunny side up egg. Serve with red pepper paste, or Yangnyeomjang sauce.
• To make the Yangyeomjang sauce, mix in soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and chopped spring onions in a small bowl.

Well, this is called "mixed rice," and the object of eating it was to mix everything up before you eat it. I wasn't able to find the red pepper paste, so I went for the Yangyeomjang sauce minus the sesame seeds, because I am not much into it.

It was a good dish, very tasty, and the soy sauce and sesame oil truly made the dish very delicious. However, I wasn't much into sesame oil, this was actually the first time I used it in my cooking, and I guess my palates didn't adjust well to it. Still, I will be cooking this dish in the future, I will just lessen the sesame oil, or probably omit the sesame oil in preparing the veggies, and just use it in the sauce.

If you want to get the original recipe and watch the video of how this dish was done, please click HERE.

*** Jenn ***