What is a bibimbap? When I first started to explore Korean food I found the word kind of funny and the idea of Korean food pretty mysterious. I soon learned what bibimbap is, how good it tastes and how it easy it is to make.
Bibim literally means mixed and -bap means rice in Korean. Mixed rice with vegetables is a staple in many Asian cuisines, but bibimbap may be the most versatile and has the potential to be as healthy as you choose to construct it.
Traditional bibimbap is made with warm rice, any combination of sautéed Korean mountain vegetables like bellflower (doraji) and fernbracken (gosari), julienned zucchini, cucumber, mushrooms, soybean sprouts, toasted seaweed (gim), shredded beef, chicken or tofu and topped with a sunny side up egg. Good gochujong (spicy red pepper paste) is essential to finish the dish. My favorite variation is dolsot bibimbap, which is served in a hot stone bowl that makes the rice on the bottom crusty.
At my house we make a slight variation on the traditional I call Farmer’s Market Bibimbap. It includes whatever seasonal vegetables are available at your local farmer’s market. Our favorites are raw pea shoots and sautéed Swiss chard.
The beauty of bibimbap is that there are no hard and fast rules about what you put into it as long as you begin with excellent rice, fresh vegetables, some sort of protein and that spicy sauce to top it off. It is also great as a refrigerator clean-out recipe for when you have just a bit of several different vegetables left in your crisper.
Farmer’s Market Bibimbap
1 c. cooked brown rice
crepe-thin 2 egg omelet, shredded
lightly sauteed and raw seasonal vegetables from farmer’s market
drizzle of sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
gochujong to taste
1. Make rice in a rice cooker or on the stovetop with a 2-1 water to rice ratio over low heat.
2. Sautee the vegetables very quickly in a wok with peanut or canola oil, add 1 clove of minced garlic and a dash of soy sauce. Vegetables should remain crisp.
3. Remove vegetables from the pan, pour out excess oil. Beat the eggs and add to the pan, swirl around the pan to achieve a thin crepe like omelet. Once the egg is well set remove from the pan, roll into a tube and beginning at one end of the tube shred into thin strips. The result will be long, thin omelet strips.
4. In a deep bowl add the rice, then the cooked and raw vegetables, a dollup of gochujong, drizzle with sesame oil, sprinkle with sesame seeds and top with the shredded egg omelet. Mix well using a long spoon and a pair of chopsticks. Eating with the spoon is customary.
*Asian specialty stores like H-Mart Korean Markets, M2M Stores and Mitsuwa Market have ingredients like gochujong, quality sesame oil and many of the Korean root vegetables mentioned in the recipe.
