Bibimbap

Beef bibimbap with a fried egg

There are so many variations you could make to this dish, you can use whatever meat and vegetables you have around and vary it according to dietary requirements so easily. This seems to be the version I make most often. 

Serves 2

Time: About an hour

Ingredients

• 80g minced beef

• 2/3 cup (uncooked)  jasmine rice

• 2 eggs

• Oil for frying

• Toasted sesame seeds and chopped spring onion for garnish

Marinade

• ½ tbsp soy sauce

• ½ tbsp sesame oil

• ½ tsp sugar

• 1 minced garlic clove

Vegetables

• 200g bean sprouts

• 150g spinach

• 5 dried shitakes mushrooms – rehydrated for at least 30 minutes in boiling water and left to soak

• 1 small carrot

• ½ courgette

• 1 spring onion

Bibimbap sauce

• 1 tbsp gochujang paste

• ½ tbsp sesame oil

• ½ tbsp sugar

• 1 tbsp water

• ½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds

• 1 tsp rice wine vinegar (or any other type e.g. red wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar)

• 1 tsp mirin

• 1 tsp soy sauce

• 1 minced garlic clove

Instructions

Beef mince

Mix the beef with the marinade ingredients listed above and leave to marinate for about half an hour whilst you prepare the rest of the dish.

Bibimbap Sauce

Mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Beansprouts

1. Rinse 200g bean sprouts and add to a pan of salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes.

2. Drain and rinse in cold water to stop them cooking further

3. Squeeze out excess water and place the bean sprouts in a bowl

4. Mix with ½ tbsp spoon of toasted sesame oil, 1tsp sesame seeds, ½ a chopped spring onion and 1 minced garlic clove. Put to one side for when you are ready to dish up.

Spinach

1. Wash 150 g spinach thoroughly

2. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and add the spinach, just for about 30 seconds so it wilts.

3. Drain the spinach and rinse under cold water to stop it cooking further

4. Once it is cool enough to handle, give it a good squeeze to remove excess water

5. Mix with ½ tbsp sesame oil, 1 tsp toasted  sesame seeds, ½ a chopped spring onion, and 1 minced garlic. Put to one side for when you are ready to dish up.

 Courgettes, carrots and mushrooms

1.  Peel the carrot and top and tail it. Cut the carrot in to matchsticks (or as you prefer, though keep in mind carrots are very hard and take longer to cook than courgette).

2. Cut the courgette in to chunky matchsticks, as these are softer I cut them chunkier than the carrots.

3. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pan on medium heat and stir fry the vegetables. Put the carrots in the pan first then after about 2 minutes add the courgettes and fry until the courgettes take on some colour, about a further 4 minutes.  Season with a tiny dash of salt.

4. Remove the courgettes and carrots then slice and fry the drained shitake mushrooms for about 3 minutes and season with a little dash of salt too. You could cook these together with the courgette if preferred, I just think it looks nice when plated up separately.  

Final Steps

Get your rice cooking by whatever method you prefer.  I use the rice setting on my microwave and have a handy microwave steamer pot especially for this purpose, otherwise I usually use a rice cooker. Both ways are pretty fool-proof as long as you get the quantities correct and the rice will stay warm for a while once cooked. General rule of thumb is 1 part rice (rinsed a few times first) to 2 parts water. About 2/3 of a cup uncooked rice should be enough for 2 people as a rough guide.    

Put a pan on or wok on medium to high heat with about ½ tbsp of oil and add the mince.  Give it an occasional stir so it gets well cooked on all sides but no need to constantly stir, you want a bit of a sear on the meat which you only get from leaving it undisturbed in the pan.  

Fried egg

For me, a fried egg with a runny yolk is essential to a good bibimbap. There is something very unctuous about the way the runny yolk coats the rice that is just so satisfying. This only takes a couple of minutes, so I usually leave it till last, right before assembly.

Serving Up

Yippee we are ready to eat!

Start by adding rice to the bowl in a fairly even layer.

Add the meat and vegetables, place each component around the edge of the bowl so they can still be seen when the fried egg is placed on top in the middle.

Top with the bibimbap sauce and an extra sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds and chopped spring onions.

So pretty! But to make sure you get a nice mouthful of everything, serve this with a spoon so you can mix everything up in one messy satisfying bowl of yum!

I heavily credit this recipe to one of my favourite Korean food blogs, My Korean Kitchen. The full recipe can be found here.