Bibimbap

Welcome back! 

Today, we have a classic Korean dish: bibimbap! Bibimbap is great because you can really alter it to fit whatever you have in your kitchen, and therefore, you can make so many different variations of it. The word bibimbap even reflects that since it translates to "mixed rice", as it is rice mixed with other ingredients. Whichever ingredients you want to use is perfectly ok, but we'll be covering the specific ones that we used in our version. 

Bibimbap

Makes about 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rice, cooked
• 6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
• 1 carrot, shredded
• Dried seaweed, soaked
• 2 mini cucumbers, thinly sliced (you can also use persian cucumbers)
• 1 bunch spinach (about 6 ounces)
• Some daikon radish, shredded (about a 3 inch chunk)
• Kimchi (we used store-bought)
• 4 eggs
• Sesame oil
• Sugar
• Salt
• Hot pepper paste
• Soy sauce
• Garlic

Meat:

• 8 ounces pork belly, thinly sliced (can also be beef)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minces
• 1-2 tablespoons pear or onion puree (optional)

You can also replace these seasonings for the meat with store-bought bulgogi marinade sauce

Directions:

1. Pickle the cucumber and daikon:
1. Cucumber: Add 1 teaspoon of sugar, shake, and marinate 15 minutes. Add some salt and vinegar, mix it up, and then let it sit for a couple hours.
2. Daikon: Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shake, and marinate 15 minutes. With clean water, rinse it out. Add some hot pepper paste and sugar, mix it up, and then let it sit for a few hours.
2. Marinate the meat: 
1. Using the soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, mirin, and garlic, make the marinade.
2. Marinate the meat in the mixture for at least 30 minutes.
3. You'll want to cook each individual ingredient. Take each ingredient out after you finish it:
1. Eggs: Crack the eggs into the oiled pan and cook them sunny-side up.
2. Carrots: Saute with sesame oil and a pinch of salt.
3. Spinach: Saute with sesame oil, some garlic, and a pinch of salt.
4. Mushrooms: Soak and dry the mushrooms, then slice them. Saute them with sesame oil, a little soy sauce, and sugar.
5. Seaweed: Saute with sesame oil, a little bit of water to make it more wet, soy sauce, and sugar.
6. Meat: Take the marinated meat and cook it with a bit of oil.
4. Don't forget to cook the rice!
5. Assemble it! You can top it off with some gochujang, which will give it some more flavor.
   

This is actually a really well-rounded dish as it has plenty of every kind of food! You can add some toasted sesame seeds to any of these (we put some on the meat). You can also use some other different ingredients, like soy bean sprouts, zucchini, or thin fish cake, if you have them around, and they're prepared in pretty similar methods. The key is sesame oil that gives everything its flavor. Also as a side note, the spinach and seaweed can also be prepared as just broiled instead of sauteed, with the same amount of sesame oil, salt, etc. We've also done it once with chashu instead of bulgogi.

-Chefpo