live in a very multi-cultural area of Melbourne so I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by authentic Vietnamese, Korean, Indian and Japanese restaurants in every direction from my house. It’s supremely awesome. I eat out quite often, but sometimes I just want the delicious flavours of my local Korean joint without having to leave the house.
Bibimbap has long been an obsession of mine – it’s a Korean dish that is literally meat, rice and vegetables. The term bibimbap translates to ‘mixed rice’ which is exactly what it is. Authentic bibimbap is pretty hard to replicate – believe me I’ve tried. Cooking fernbrake (a dried Korean green that’s a key ingredient in this dish – also called gosari) so it doesn’t taste like rubbery seaweed is something I’ve never been able to master. I do a much simpler version of my own that really hits the spot when I couldn’t be bothered trundling down the street for the real thing. It uses all the traditional flavours of bibimbap but I can get all the ingredients at my local supermarket and I don’t have to trek to a specialty shop to buy rare ingredients.
Homemade bibimbap
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 tsp white miso paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp caster sugar
1 brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
600g lean beef mince
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup baby spinach
4 eggs
2 cups cooked brown rice
1 small carrot, cut into thin batons
1 small cucumber, cut into thin batons
1 nori sheet, finely sliced
Sauce:
1/4 cup sambal olek, or other chilli sauce
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
Method:
Combine miso paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, onion, garlic and spring onions in a bowl. Add beef mince, mix well to combine and marinate for 20 minutes (you can marinate it all day if you like but 20 minutes is fine).
Fry beef in a 2 tsp vegetable oil over medium-high heat, breaking up with a wooden spoon for about 3 or 4 minutes or until sealed and remove from pan.
Add 1 tsp oil to the pan and fry baby spinach for about a minute. Remove from pan.
Add remaining 1 tsp oil to pan and fry eggs, sunny-side up. Remove from pan
For the sauce, mix sambal olek, sugar, sesame oil and sesame seeds together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Assemble the bibimbap in 4 bowls – rice on the bottom, vegetables (note: carrot and cucumber are served raw), beef, sprinkle with nori and place an egg on top.
Add sauce to taste and enjoy!
TIP:
You can add kimchi or any Korean-style pickled vegetables as well.
Also Korean food scares people if they haven’t tried it before but I promise, everyone loves it. If they question you, tell them to pull their head in.
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Have you made any Korean dishes at home before? Are you a huge fan of Bi Bim Bap?
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6 Comments
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I haven’t, but I think I might now! Will have to substitute the rice with cauliflower rice, and sugar with stevia or natvia thanks to dietary requirements for me, but should still be delicious! Do you have the bowls that get super hot so the rice goes crunchy? That’s my favourite part of bi bim bap 🙂
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Author
Oh I should get those! They’d work really well with cauliflower-rice I think. That rice has been a god damn saviour for me.
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This is the best recipe website for all Korean food
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/bibimbapI live in Seoul and absolutely love Korean food!
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Oh thanks for the link – that looks great!
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I love bibimbap and Korean food and I feel that this is a delicious mixed rice recipe that is inspired by bibimbap, but isn’t bibimbap. Perhaps you could retitle the post to say a bibimbap inspired dish or call it mixed rice.
You have suggested a Japanese miso paste and Japanese seaweed. (To be fair Japanese seaweed is very similar to Korean dried seaweed, which is called gim.) Sambal oleck is an Indonesian chilli sauce that is quite lent from gochujang. With no Korean ingredients at all, this dish is Korean inspired at best.
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Thanks for the feedback – The intro explains how it’s hard to find traditional Korean ingredients like fernbrake in Australia and how this is a paired back version made with ingredients you can buy from the supermarket. I’m certainly not suggesting this is traditional bibimbap – I’ve also never had a bibimbap that tastes the same anywhere. They’re always so different.
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