Bibimbap

I know that putting a fried egg on top of a bowl of pretty much anything is pretty trendy right now, a trend that I've embraced wholeheartedly in the past few years. I've been cracking eggs on risotto, on fried rice, I've even cracked a few on a pizza (I know you're skeptical, but it was good). I may be jumping on a foodie bandwagon, but full credit to this one goes to the Koreans. They've been cracking eggs on top of rice bowls for years.

It's Lunar New Year today, and to celebrate we had my first attempt at a traditional Korean dish - Bibimbap. Made from scratch it is a bit fussy, though according to Grace, in Korea this meal is made with leftover side-dishes, ones that are present with every Korean meal. This is Grace's dad's go to meal when her mom is away-

Campbell-Choi Bibimbap

Ingredients:

Veggies-
2 carrots, cut into thin strips
1 zuchinni, cut into thin strips
1 handful of sliced mushrooms (more if EVERYONE in your family likes mushrooms)
bean sprouts (handful per person)
spinach - I used aprox 3 cups fresh

ground beef, aprox 1 pound

eggs, 1 per person

Korean chili paste, found in your city's Korean grocery store, unless you live in Chilliwack.

Sesame oil, with a pinch of salt and pepper

Get Cooking:

1) Make some sticky rice - Korean rice has a stickier texture than Chines, from my Korean taste testers I have found that Calrose rice is the one that most approximates Korean rice texture.

2) Fry the ground beef. Grace reports that this should not be seasoned, as the seasoning comes later but I couldn't resist and added a shot of soy sauce and a pinch of sugar.

3) Cook your veggies. Now, in some of the recipes I saw online some of the veggies were sauteed in sesame oil, but we made Choi-style Bibimbap, which means that veggies were blanched in boiling water. I used one pot with salted boiling water and just rotated the different veggies through, pulling them out with a slotted spoon to a platter when the preceeding veg was cooked.

4) Fry the eggs, sunny-side up style

5) Assemble. On a bowl of rice add the veggies, the beef, a shot of sesame oil, a shot of chili paste, and finally an egg.

6) Mix! See the second photo of our lovely Korean model for the proper mixing technique. I offered to go get chop sticks but was informed that this meal is NOT eaten with chop sticks.

Rach - I'm still waiting on that reciprocal challenge. Guess you're just afraid with what I'm going to come back with. And you should be, afraid that is. Very afraid.