Bibimbap

When living within and traveling around the great continent of Asia, a vegetarian finds the one or two dishes available to them within that region.  Bibimbap turned out to be my savior when I visited S.  Korea.  This turned into and remains one of my favorite dishes in the world.  Thanks definitely extends to my friend Corey who introduced me to it.  My favorite type of bibimbap (dolsot) is impossible to recreate without an expensive stone bowl.  This type comes with rice in the bottom, vegetables and a raw egg.  The stone bowl is so hot that as you mix around the ingredients, the eggs and vegetables cook and it becomes a sort of fried rice in a bowl.  The traditional bibimbap comes with beef, but that is easily left out for an amazing dish.  Finally, it's been impossible for me to find the red chili sauce that Koreans put with it.  This sauce pretty much makes the dish.  Instead, we use sriracha sauce.  I highly recommend you try making this OR get it the next time you're in a Korean restaurant.  Unfortunately, my source for this recipe can't be found.  It took me a long time to find this exact recipe well over a year ago.  I have no idea where I got it from off the internet.  I have modified it only to exclude the beef.  The recipe is a bit challenging at first, but is very easy for us now!

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Ingredients:

• 3/4 to 11/2 cups rice (uncooked) ((use sticky rice))
• 2-4 carrots
• 10 oz. spinach, fresh
• 8 oz. bean sprouts - with or without attached beans
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup + 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 cup ground sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic 
• Sriracha

Overview
Start the rice cooking in a rice cooker or pot.  While the rice is cooking, make the namarus (side dishes).  Mince the garlic and grind the sesame seeds for all the namarus at once.  Sesame seeds expand when ground, 2 or 3 tablespoons of sesame seeds will make 1/4 cup of ground sesame seeds.


Carrot Namaru

• 2-4 small carrots
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons ground sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp minced garlic

Cut the carrots into matchsticks.  Boil in water for a few minutes, covered.  Drain.  Put the carrots in a bowl.  Add the sesame oil, ground sesame seeds, and minced garlic.  Mix.

Spinach Namaru

• 10 oz. spinach
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 tsp ground sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp minced garlic 

Put the spinach in a large covered pot with an inch or two of water.  Bring to a boil and cook as usual.  Stir occasionally to keep the spinach from sticking to the pot.  The spinach is done when it's dark green and reduced to a fraction of its original volume.  Drain the cooked spinach.  Cool by adding cold water to the pot and drain again.  Squeeze the spinach in your hands to remove the water.  Slice the cooked spinach into 1 inch pieces.  Put the cooked spinach in a bowl with the sesame oil, ground sesame seeds, and grated garlic.  Mix.

Bean Sprout Namaru

• 8 oz bean sprouts - preferably with beans
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp ground sesame seeds
• 1/4 grated garlic

Put the bean sprouts in a pot and fill with water to cover the sprouts.  Cover and bring to a boil on high heat.  If the sprouts don't have beans, stop cooking them when the water boils.  If the sprouts do have beans, continue cooking until the beans are soft.  Drain and put the the cooked sprouts in a bwol.  Dress with sesame oil, ground sesame seeds, and grated garlic.

Egg
Fry up three eggs so that yolk is hardened.  When finished, cut the eggs into strips.

Assembly
Place the rice in the bottom of a bowl, place the three namarus and egg over top of the rice.  mix in the spicy Korean sauce as desired.