A few days ago, I made 비빔밥 Bibimbap or Korean Mixed Rice. I was craving for chicken so I did.
However, instead of using the normal ingredients, I just made my own version of it - again. In as much as I would want to top it with egg, I did not because I already have chicken. According to this, eating too much meat could fasten aging. So, if you notice, I normally just have one meat or just egg on the meals I blogged about in here. Eating less meat and just enough protein keeps one looking young - given that you don't have much stress either. I'm not trying to convince you to do the same, don't get me wrong, I'm just telling you why I made it this way.
If you also noticed on the picture below, I didn't use Kuchujang or the Korean Chili paste either. One, I prefer to cut back on the sugar intake and that chili paste has white sugar in it. Instead of that, I topped it with the stored kimchi I blogged about here. That's enough to tease the spice here.
If you would want to eat Bibimbap and would want to make one, just so you know, this is not one of those quick fix meal. That's why, for some reasons, I got attached to the Koreans who invited me to family dinners because I saw the effort they took to serve us a feast of a meal. Kudos to all the Korean Moms who cook for their kids in the world.
It isn't just the Koreans' kitchen who looks like this. Almost every Oriental kitchen in Asia - the Japanese, Chinese, Hongkongese and even the Thais and Vietnamese give plenty of attention when it comes to cooking.
I was introduced to the art of cooking when I got hooked watching The Iron Chef back when I was young and my favorite iron chef was the quiet but freaking awesome - Rokusaburo Michiba. I never missed an Iron Chef episode when Michiba is on the kitchen and I always bet against my dad that he'd win and I always won the bet! Many has followed the footpath of that guy and he still has a restaurant in Japan. Kudos to all the cook in the world who made cooking and eating more creative and interesting! I guess, despite that my favorite chef is Michiba, I fell in love with the Korean kitchen because that's where I got more exposed to. What we eat more, we tend to love.
Now, back to Bibimbap, since I am in Europe and some of the ingredients in the Bibimbap are nowhere to be found here and so... I tweaked it again. But then again, some of the original ingredients in the dish would be too much for my Dutch hub as well. So, I just used the ingredients I know he would eat and I didn't use the normal amount of seasonings they'd put on some vegetables but rather adjusted it a bit for his Western palate - besides, he's my only customer.
The amount of the ingredients makes two huge servings.
I wrote the recipe this way to encourage our Korean Steemians here to share some of their recipes. So, if you see an unfamiliar character, it's Hangul - or Korean.
HOW TO PREPARE:
Rice is the key ingredient to this. I already cooked rice when I finally made up my mind on what should go with it so I can only show you what's already been cooked. It's pretty easy to cook rice, just wash the rice till the water is less blurry, add water and allow to cook. To get the exact amount of water, we Filipinos do it this way - dip your finger till the top of the rice and pour in some water till the first slit of that finger and set the fire or heat to medium your rice would cook perfectly. I still do this even though there's a rice cooker as I cook organic rice. It comes in a package but different with that of white rice with cooking instructions.
Work with the chicken first. Hub and I prefer the normal taste the the meat and the vegetables already have so if you are used to eating very tasty food or to eating out - you might want to consider doubling the seasonings. The amount of the seasonings I used in here are just enough - it won't give you blanch taste either.
By the way, I used four pans to minimize cooking time as I also have other things to do. One for the chicken, one for the vegetables, one for the mushrooms and another one for the eggplant in case it waters too much. It's important to have the original taste of each vegetable ingredient. So there ...
Your plate should at least look this full or even fuller.
Then top with kimchi or if you like ~ the traditional way ... with egg and any chili paste you have at home. I tried making an alternative for the Kuchujang or the Korean chilipaste mixing a table spoon of Heinz ketchup, a table spoon of honey, a teaspoon of sambal and 1 drop of olive oil. This time, I chose to just top it with kimchi. I like it mild spicy.
You can serve it this way and since hub got done with his client pretty late that day I let the pyrex - like bowl sit on the still hot surface of the stove to keep it warm without cooking the fresh ingredients. Nothing beats warm Bibimbap.
You can serve it this pretty but in my case, I prefer eating it the traditional way - mixed! So, I poured mine on the pan where I cooked the chicken to make sure I get the sauce to seep in the rice then transferred it to my bowl.
After 10 minutes, hub finally came in to join me for lunch and in 15 minutes, we cleaned our plates. It took me more than half an hour cooking this because of taking pictures. It's funny that it just took us 15 minutes to clean out plates.
There are other recipes and ways to make Bibimbap and here are some sources on how to and what's it about.
Bibimbap
Traditional Bibimbap
My Own Blog which I collaborated with a former student is the source for those Hangul
I took each picture with a Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 edition.
I usually blog about cooking, gardening and photography and if you happen to be interested in all of those, too .