Bibimbap

I am ALL about Korean food and gochujang right now, and if you know me well enough, you’ll know that ANYTHING with an egg on it is the best thing that ever happened. So this is how I make my version of bibimbap.

What is bibimbap?

Basically a bowl of warm white rice topped with miscellaneous vegetables, meat if you wish, topped with an egg and gochujang pepper sauce. Usually enjoyed in a hot stone bowl that continues to cook and crisp up the rice, but you can go without.

What do you put in bibimbap?

Lots of things!

First we start with rice, meat (if you wish) and an egg.

Then you have an assortment of garnishes you can add. These garnishes/ingredients are called banchan, and are often pickled/seasoned vegetables, feel free to experiment!

Some examples of banchan are:

• blanched vegetables- carrot, zucchini, sprouts, mushrooms, etc
• pickled vegetables – kimchi, cucumber, radish
• dried anchovy/squid

Carrot, cucumber, bean sprout, enoki mushrooms and spicy marinated tofu.

I had recently been to H-Mart and stocked up on a bunch of Asian ingredients, so I just took whatever I had left to make this. My version is NOT traditional, but dammit, use whatever the hell you like.

I was also lucky to find a large container of marinated ready to go bulgogi, but you can make this yourself, there are tons of recipes on the internet! If you don’t wish to make bulgogi or even add meat at all, feel free to substitute.

This is a super simple dish and you don’t really need a recipe, it’s also a great excuse to use up any leftover veg in the fridge.

All you need to do is prepare the ingredients and have some white rice ready to go. Any RAW vegetable should be softened either via blanching or a quick trip in a sautee pan. I softened everything but the cucumber, wanted a little freshness in there!

You’ll also want to prepare a gochujang sauce. You can get gochujang red pepper paste in a lot of Asian supermarkets or even order it online.

What you’ll need:

• 2 tablespoons Korean red chili paste (gochujang)
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 2 tsp sugar

You can make this to taste, some people also add sesame seed or green onion, you do you!

Finally cook up your hot ingredients, and prepare a sunny side up egg and you’re ready to go!

Now we’re ready to assemble the bowls. If you want you can take a portion of rice and crisp it up a tad in a hot fry pan if you wish to mimic having a hot stone bowl, but this recipe is delicious without.

Place rice in the bottom of a large bowl, and begin placing ingredients around the edge, alternating colours if you can. This is a pretty dish, so take your time! Place the egg in the center and add your gochujang sauce.