Bibimbap

비빔밥[bi-bim-bob]
There is no denying that the popularity of Korean food is fast growing in recent years across the United States as well as in other parts of the world. I often get requests from the Middle East or from Africa for Korean recipes. Some pople also email me pictures of Korean food products they bought and ask me to translate the instructions on the packaging. Whenever I get those kinds of requests especially from the countries which I have seen only on a map and have little knowledge of, I feel really connected to these people through this truly world wide web. I can see food travels with no borders. (By the way, if you need a help with translating Korean on packaging and etc, I would be glad to help.)



As the popularity of Korean foods is growing, I noticed that one of the most popular Korean dishes among non-Koreans is bibimbap, along with bulgogi, tteokbbokki, soft tofu soup. I can see why people love bibimbap. It's not only colorful to look at, but there are so many different flavors tossed into a single bowl of rice. Each ingredient is tasty enough on its own. When they are all mixed together, the harmony of different flavors is enhanced with its spicy dressing.


Bibimbap is not a simple dish to make because you are really making several different dishes and each takes time. Once you have them ready, it's easy since all you need to do is to mix them together. Note that the ingredients that go into bibimbap may vary depending on the availability of ingredients or your preference for specific ingredients. After all, bibimbap literally means "mixed rice" so it doesn't really matter what you mix with.

Ingredients:

steamed rice (1 cup per serving)

Toppings:
bean sprout salad
spinach salad
gosari salad
zuchini (salted and pan-fried with a pinch ground sesame seeds)
carrots (1, julienned and pan-fried)
mushroom (4, sliced and pan-fried)
egg (1, egg white and yolk separated and fried)

Sauce:
beef chili paste sauce

Garnish:
pine nuts (4)
dry chili thread
sesame oil (1 tbl)

1.

See Beef Chili Sauce fore detailed recipe. If you have bulgogi as topping, you can use regular chili paste instead.

2.

See Bean Sprout Salad for detailed recipe.

3.

See Spinach Salad for detailed recipe.

4.

See Gosari Salad for detailed recipe.

5.

Separate egg yolk and white, spread them thin on a skillet, pan fry and then cut thin. See the recipe for Party Noodle Soup for pictures.

6.

Salt thoroughly sliced zuchini and wait 20 minutes. Squeeze out water, pan fry with a pinch of ground sesame seeds. See the recipe for Party Noodle Soup for pictures.

7.

Julienne carrot and pan-fry with a little bit of oil. Place all ingredients with steamed rice with chili paste sauce and a table spoon of sesame oil. Mix well and enjoy~

Beef Chili Paste Sauce

약고추장 [yaak-go-choo-jaang]
I originally made this sauce to use as a dressing for bibimbap but decided to make it a separate post. It is part of bibimbap recipe, but it goes well with many other dishes as well. You can mix in a spoonful of this beef chili paste sauce onto your rice for instant beef-chili-bibimbap, or use it as ssamjang for vegetables or BBQ. If you like the original Korean chili paste, I am sure you will like this even more.

Ingredients:

ground beef (1/2 lb)
cooking wine (3 tbl)
ground pepper (pinch)
chili paste (2 cup)
ginger (1 tbl, ground)
garlic (3 tbl, minced)
onion (1/2 chopped)
honey (4 tbl)
sesame oil (1 tbl)
ground sesame seeds (3 tbl)

1.

Add cooking wine and pepper to ground beef and mix well. Stir fry the peppered ground beef and set it aside.

2.

In a pot, mix the remaining ingredients together (chili paste, ground ginger, minced garlic, chopped onion, honey, sesame oil and ground sesame seeds) and boil.

3.

When the sauce boils, add the ground beef from Step 1, reduce to low/medium heat and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Gosari Salad

고사리무침 [go-sa-ri-moo-chim]
This is the third in the Korean vegetable series followed by Spinach Salad and Bean Sprout Salad. While spinach and bean sprouts may be known to Westerners, gosari may still be quite foreign to many people. Gosari is the young stem of brackens which is often harvested in mountainous areas all over the world. While many cultures do not use this plant for cooking, it is commonly consumed in the Northeast Asia including Korea, Japan and China. As a matter of fact, it is also a typical ingredient in a popular mixed rice dish, bibimbap. The gosari salad in this recipe can be consumed as an independent side dish or as toppings for bibimbap.


Gosari is harvested in the spring time when its stem is still young and tender.


When harvested, they are boiled in water for about 5 minutes, then sun dried until they turn completely dry and dark brown as shown above for storage.


Prior to cooking, the dried gosari must be soaked in water overnight until the stems are wet and plump as shown here.


You still need to boil them in water until they turn soft like this. The volume will almost double when fully cooked and ready to be used. Depending on the quality of gosari, the cooking time could last from 10 minutes to an hour. It should be done when it's soft and you can easily chew on it.

Ingredients:

cooked gosari (300g, roughly cut in half lengthwise)
anchovy stock (1/3 cup, made of one large anchovy boiled in water for about 5 min)
olive oil (1 tbl)
sesame oil (1 tbl)
ground sesame seeds (1 tbl)

Seasoning Sauce:
Korean soy sauce (2 tbl)
garlic (1 cloves, minced)
green onion (2 tbl, chopped)
pepper (pinch)

1.

Prepare the seasoning sauce by mixing Korean soy sauce, minced garlic, chopped green onion and a pinch of ground pepper together.

2.

Season the cooked gosari in the seasoning mix in Step 1.

3.

Grease the pan with olive oil and stir fry the gosari mix from Step 2.

4.

Add anchovy stock, cover the lid and simmer for about 5 minutes.

5.

When the gosari mix is wet and moist in anchovy stock, add sesame oil and ground sesame seeds and stir fry for another minute or so.

Korean Spinach Salad

시금치무침[shi-keum-chi-moo-chim]
Spinach is packed with vital nutrients like iron and beta-carotene and is an excellent source of fiber. But unfortunately, I find there are not that many dishes that feature this healthy vegetable as main ingredient. I guess in the Western diet, spinach salad and creamy spinach are as popular as it gets. Salad is always a good option, but I personally don't like creamy spinach because creamy flavor overpowers the real flavor of spinach.

If you are looking for an alternative spinach dish, I recommend Korean Spinach Salad. Though it's called salad, we use half-cooked or blanched spinach. First, you would need a whole bunch of spinach which has stems and a little bit of roots at the bottom instead of the typical spinach leaves sold for salad. Because the spinach is only half cooked, you get the full flavor of cooked spinach while still being fresh when biting it. When it's mixed with garlic soy sauce, you would be surprised to find a wonderful combination of these two super-foods - spinach and garlic - tastes when mixed together.

Ingredients:

spinach 300g (2 bunches)
salt (1 tsp)
Korean soy sauce (1 1/2 tbl)
garlic (3 cloves, minced)
green onion (1 tbl, chopped)
sesame oil (1/2 tbl)
ground sesame seeds (1/2 tbl)

1.

Boil water with some salt.

2.

Immerse the spinach in boiling water with leafy green part on top and blanch the spinach for no more than 30 seconds. Spinach should be only half-cooked.

3.

Rinse in cold water to stop cooking. Drain and squeeze out water. Then cut the spinach bunch into 3 parts.

4.

Make the seasoning sauce by mixing altogether the ingredients above.

5.

Mix the sauce into spinach.