In 1997, while serving in the US Air Force, I had the opportunity to work for a year at the Republic of Korea (i.e. South Korea) Second Army headquarters in Taegu, South Korea. I was part of a small unit with only about 30 people, 1/2 of which were soldiers with the South Korean army. I lived on a U.S. Army base (Camp Walker) but worked on the Korean base across town. For lunch each day I had the choice of either taking my own lunch (Huh? That would mean I'd have to make it in the morning!), eating at the Korean dining hall on base, or eating at one of the nearby Korean/Chinese restaurants. I'm pretty brave so I was willing to try many new things and quickly fell in love with the food.
The written Korean language is called "Hangul." It consists of a series of 26 (if I remember correctly) symbols that are put together in little blocks which are then put together to form words. When first told that I could learn to read Korean in less than an hour I didn't believe it -- but it took about 45 minutes! The characters are actually a phoentic alphabet so when you learn to read the characters you can also pronounce the words. That doesn't mean you'll know what the words mean but it does mean you can go into a restaurant and recognize the names of things you like to eat. One of the first I learned, because I enjoyed it soooooo much was a dish called "BiBimBap." "Bap" means "cooked rice." There are multiple words for rice depending if it is growing, dry, cooked, etc. "BiBim" means mixed vegetables, so Bi BimBap literally means mixed vegetables with rice.
What I enjoyed about BiBimBap was that it was always a little different depending where I had it. It was, however, always delicious and was something I had frequently. It is actually pretty simple to make and can be made with pretty much whatever veggies you happen to have around or are in season at the moment. The only special ingredient that you need to track down (if you don't have a local Asian market there's always Amazon!) is the Gochujang ("fermented red pepper paste"). Warning!! Do NOT let the description "fermented red pepper paste" scare you away. I think something's lost in the translation, it really isn't a goofy taste.
Let me tell you about how I made this batch of bibimbap. Here we go! I actually used two different types of Korean "salad" that can also be eaten as a separate side dish (as we did too). Korean meals traditionally are served with a couple of small saucer type dishes that will have kimchi, slices of onion, slices of garlic, or salads such as I made here. I chose to make a seasoned bean sprout salad ("Sukju Namul Muchim") and a seasoned spinach salad ("Sigeumchi Namul banchan"). The salads were used as an ingredient of the bibimbap as well as a side dish ("banchan").
Both of these salads were super simple to make. The spinach was blanched for about 2 minutes and then cooled with cold water and drained. Same thing for the mung beans except that they are thoroughly rinsed before blanching. After blanching, each were mixed with sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt, minced garlic and minced onions (don't worry about exact amounts, I'll link the recipe at the end). Everything was mixed around and then set aside until a bit later.
Next I prepared the rest of the ingredients. Mushroom slices and carrots cut into little matchsticks. Generally with Korean food (other than noodles) everything is cut up into small bite sized pieces. Knives are used in the kitchen but not on the dining table where only a spoon (for soup and rice) and chopsticks (for everything else) are used. The carrots were cooked for a minute or two in a couple drops of sesame oil and then the mushrooms the same way.
I forgot to mention that I'd started some ground beef marinating right before I began working with the vegetables. The marinade was quite simple with soy sauce, sesame oil, minced garlic, and brow sugar. Once the vegetables were done the ground beef was browned and set aside.
Of course we needed rice. I started it going about the same time I began cooking the vegetables. I've written about the way I learned to cook rice in Korea so I won't spend a lot of time here. The key is to make sure to rinse out the starch until the water is pretty clear, fill the pan until the water comes up to your last knuckle, put the pan on the stove and bring to a boil. One it begins to boil, cover the pan and reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. Perfect rice ready to be fluffed every time!
The last thing we need is the sauce. The sauce can be made in advance, even days in advance. I made a double batch of sauce so I'd have some ready the next time. As I mentioned, the Gochujang is really the key ingredient for this recipe. I'm sure I'l learn some other uses for the red pepper paste but at the moment this is the only recipe I have that uses it. I also don't know if it is ever used straight out of the container. For bibimbap the basic mixture is 2 tablespoons of the gochujang, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of water, 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds, 1 teaspoon of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar), and 1 teaspoon of minced garlic.
This sauce is the most wonderful stuff in the universe!! One of the things I, and Elizabeth, love about bibimbap is that the sauce is not put into the dish while it is being being made. The sauce is served separately and each person gets to mix in as much as they want. That means that I can add a scoop or two of extra sauce and have a spicier dish while Elizabeth can put a teaspoon or so on. I absolutely love this sauce! All the ingredients for the sauce went into a mixing bowl and were thoroughly mixed together and then put into a container for use when we need it.
Once everything was ready it was time to prepare the dish for serving. In Korea, bibimbap is traditionall served in a big stone bowl that has been heated somewhere close to the same temperature of molten lava. A bunch of rice goes into the bowl and then each of the ingredients are put in segments around the bowl as shown in the photos. Most of the time, a plain fried egg (sunny side up) tops off the whole dish and it is ready to be served!
I put in the photo of how the dish looks when served, not how it looks before the first bite. After it is served, a couple tablespoons of sauce are scooped on and then everything gets stirred together. If you prefer, I suppose you could leave things un-mixed up but that would be weird! Simple, right? Yes it is and it is also really delicious.
This really is one of my favorite dishes in the world! So good, as a matter of fact, that I made this for us two nights in a row! If you'd like to try making it, here's the link to my favorite Korean cooking website (simple instructions, links to special ingredients, and demonstration videos to help): https://mykoreankitchen.com/bibimbap-korean-mixed-rice-with-meat-and-assorted-vegetables/
Enjoy and bon appetit!
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