Bibimbap!

I'm going to share with you one of my favorite recipes. As you may or may not have deduced, my husband is Korean. Therefore, many Korean recipes have crept into my cooking repertoire, and for that I am glad. However, my love for bibimbap started even before dating my husband. I lived with a Korean pastor and his Caucasian wife for a summer and she was the best Korean cook! Even our other Korean friends agreed. She introduced me to this delicious bowl of rice, marinated meat, veggies, and fried egg to top it all off which I soon learned was called bibimbap (which basically means "mixed rice").

I've made this recipe many times since and I don't really measure much anymore. So sorry that these instructions are somewhat vague. But the great thing about this recipe is that it's so flexible. If you are having more people over for dinner, just add an extra cucumber and zucchini and make a bit more meat. No problem!

Bibimbap
Adapted from Dok Suni
Serves 2-3

2 cups rice
8 oz. tender beef
1 cucumber
3-4 carrots
1 zucchini
1 bunch spinach
a few leafs of Romaine lettuce
2 or 3 eggs
2-3 cloves of garlic ( I usually just press a few into a little bowl to use throughout the process)

Seasoning:
rice vinegar
soy sauce
saki
brown sugar
sesame oil
course sea salt
sesame salt (optional)
black pepper
gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)

Cook 2 cups of rice (sometimes I forget this until I'm about to make up the bowls and, boy, is that frustrating!)

Thinly slice the beef and marinate in 2 T. soy sauce, 1 T. saki, 1 t. brown sugar, 1 t. sesame oil, a pinch of minced garlic, and a few grinds of black pepper while you prepare other ingredients.

Cucumber: Cut cucumber into 2" long match sticks and season with rice vinegar, salt, and minced garlic.

Carrots: Julienne carrots. Bring an inch of water to a boil. Boil carrots in the water for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Zucchini: Thinly slice the zucchini with a mandolin slicer. Heat some vegetable oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute the zucchini with some salt and a little sesame oil until somewhat transparent (about 3 minutes).

Spinach: Wash spinach well and boil until wilted (about 1 minute). Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Squeeze dry and chop if necessary. Add a splash of soy sauce, some minced garlic, some sesame salt, and a bit of sesame oil. Mix well and season to taste.

Lettuce: Wash and chop roughly.

Okay, all your veggies are good to go! Now just cook the meat in a little oil until browned and fry one egg per person.

To each bowl (use big, shallow bowls if possible), add a scoop of rice and a pile of each veggie and the meat. Top with an egg.

Now for the super important part. The "special sauce".

Spicy Sauce
2 T. gochujang (can be found at any Korean store and most Asian markets)
1 t. rice vinegar
1 t. sesame oil
1 t. water
pinch of minced garlic

Mix all of the ingredients together and plop some on top of your bowl of goodness.

Now mix, mix, mix! Cling that spoon all around and make a jolly racket. This is the fun part. Add more spice to taste. Mmm, enjoy! (Sorry, no pictures of the mixed bibimbap. It doesn't look as pretty.)