Bibimbap 비빔밥 Korean Mixed Rice Bowl With Beef

I'm cooking bibimbap (meaning "to mix rice" in Korean) tonight, it is a wonderful way to use up whatever vegetables I have left from previous night's cooking. I left work a little early today to top up my Korean pantry. It was a pleasant ride back from the other side of the river since it was at least 7 degrees cooler than yesterday. The Korean grocer has been taken interest in why on earth I have been stocking up on obscure Korean products that only a Korean would buy :)

There is a fair amount of cutting involves in making this dish, but I must confess I really do enjoy going through the process while facing the window looking out to the back garden. The final result is beautiful bowls of rice with colourful toppings that you are to destroy completely almost immediately!!

P.S yet another family recipe from the K household.

serves 4 as a one dish meal

you'll need or rather what I used;

500 g beef mince or beef fillet, sliced

3 carrots, peeled cut into matchstick size

2 zucchini , cut into matchstick size

5 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in hot water and cut into sliced

100 g gosari (brackens or dried fern, from Korean grocer ) boiled for 20 minutes and drained

250 g soybean sprouts, picked, boiled for 20 minutes and drained

1/2 a red cos lettuce , sliced

4 sesame leaves , roughly chopped
a handful of snow pea sprouts

let's start cooking;

Cook beef mince in a hot pan til no longer pink, add minced garlic, dash of soy and seseame oil.
Marinate fillet (if using) with dash of soy, sesame oil and a little minced garlic, cook to your liking.

Stir fried carrots, zucchini and mushrooms with a little oil separately (briefly) and mix with dash of sesame oil and soy.

Marinate soya bean sprouts and gosari with dash of soy and sesame oil.

you also need

2 cups of cook Korean or Japanese short grain rice

3 egg yolks

toasted black and white sesame seeds (I toasted a batch and store them in airtight containers)

1/2 cup of Korean spicy sauce

Place some rice in a large bowl.

Arrange bean sprouts, carrot and gosari neatly over the rice.

Follow by mushrooms, lettuce, sesame leaves and snow pea sprouts.

Carefully place an egg yolk in the middle, drizzle with sesame seeds and a dollop of Korean spicy sauce.

Look at this prettiness for as long as you want as it won't last :)

Now comes my favourite part!! Breaking the egg yolk :) and destroy everything you so carefully constructed. Bibimbap! Bibimbap!

After the war! War? no war yet!!