South Korea's #1 Hit Dish Bibimbap

Bibimbap

Have you ever heard of KPop? It's South Korea's own brand of boy band & girl band pop music and over the last decade it has taken Japan (and the rest of Asia) by storm. In fact, there may be only one Korean thing that's more popular in Japan than KPop and that's this dish - bibimbap (meaning "mixed rice" in Korean).

What you see with a proper bibimbap isn't exactly what you get - although it looks like some fried vegetables and beef piled on top of a bowl of rice, it's a little more sophisticated than that. The vegetables are mostly raw and mixed with salt, sesame seeds, garlic and sesame oil to create a slightly piquant, rich flavour.

In Korea, this dish would be quite a lot more fiery, but in Japan, the accent is on less heat and a little more variety of flavour and sweetness. I used courgette, carrot, beansprouts and spinach as vegetables in this dish but there is a wide variety of vegetables you can use. The carrot and courgette are julienned and then salted - left for 10 minutes, then they are then given a good squeeze to remove excess liquid. The beansprouts and spinach are boiled for 1 minute before all four vegetables get their flavourings. I used minced beef with onion as a fifth topping, beef being the classic meat to eat with bibimbap. To make this a truly nourishing one bowl meal, I top my bibimbap with a fried egg. To finish, I add a spoonful of Korean bibimbap chilli paste (because even Japanese style bibimbap needs to give you a little fire in your belly!)

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can view the Youtube tutorial by clicking Bibimbap and the written recipe here.

Happy cooking! Kurumi XXXX.

If you want to try something Korean but without the meat, you could check out my Kimchi Omurice recipe.

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Bibimbap

ingredients: 2 servings

400g cooked rice

80g julienned carrot

90g julienned courgette

100g beansprout

140g spinach

200g minced beef

40g chopped spring onion

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp veg oil

1 tsp salt

3 tsp finely chopped garlic

2.5 tbsp toasted white sesame seeds

2 tsp sesame oil

2 eggs

2 tsp korean bibimbap spicy sauce/paste ( optional)

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how to:

sprinkle 1/4 tsp of salt on the carrot, mix in a bowl and set aside for 10 mins

sprinkle 1/4 tsp of salt on the courgette, mix in a bowl and set aside for 10 mins

grind the sesame seeds well using a pestle & mortar or a blender

boil the beansprouts for 1 min, then drain well and set aside in a third  bowl

in a second pan, boil the spinach for 1 min , drain well and set aside

heat 1/2 tbsp of the veg oil in a frying pan, add 1 tsp of garlic, the spring onion & the minced meat, mix together well and fry for 2 mins

next, add 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, 2 tsp of soy sauce and fry until the beef is cooked

now go back to the carrot - squeeze the liquid out of the carrot, add 1/2 tsp of garlic, 1/2 tsp of the sesame oil & 1 tsp of sesame seeds and mix together well in a bowl

next, using your hand, squeeze any liquid out of the courgette 

add 1/2 tsp of garlic, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil, 1 tsp of sesame seeds to the courgette and mix together well

add 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of garlic, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil & 1 tsp of sesame seeds to the beansprouts and mix well

add 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/2 tsp of garlic, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil & 1 tsp of sesame seeds to the spinach and mix well

heat 1/2 tbsp of veg oil in a frying pan and fry the eggs

last, to assemble your bibimbap:

put half of the cooked rice in each bowl, put the beansprouts, beef, carrot, courgette & spinach on top of the rice. next, add the fried egg to the centre and add 1 tsp of korean bibimbap sauce/paste (optional) to each bowl

serve immediately

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Bibimbap