Bibimbap - Mixed Rice with Vegetables

Whenever I travel, I always like to observe what is the eating culture of that particular country. I love to pick up a few cooking tricks or recipes from the locals.  In fact, I find that Korean are very pragmatic. Their regular food is so practical & easy to prepare. Though Korean food is not made with expensive raw material like the Chinese (especially Cantonese food- expensive fish,  abalone, crab, lobsters, expensive sea cucumber..etc). But I still think their food is quite healthy& good. Besides, we do appreciate the simplicity of their cuisine. When I prepare the Bibimbap,  I feel like I am making a very similar Chinese dishes - 擂茶，which is also made with different variety of vegetables.

I will provide the authentic bibimbap recipes here. You will find some of the ingredients I use is slightly different because we use whatever raw material that are available in the fridge. Just be flexible & create your own Bibimbap. You can sneak in some of your family favorite vegetable or etc..... As you can see, my kid favorite fish cake is in her bibimbap. Feel free to adjust the amount of vegetables. There is no hard & fast rules.

Ingredients:

Pre-prepare cooked rice

Handful of bean sprouts

Handful of spinach

1-2 stick of celery

6 pcs of shiitake mushrooms

250g of ground beef or pork

1 carrot

2 eggs with spring onion

Soy sauces

Hot pepper paste  (Korean Gochujang)

Garlic

Sesame seeds

Sesame oil

Vege oil 

** Options my sneak-in ingredients:

Some stir fry fish cakes

Some stir fry onion with pork strips

Some bell pepper

Some cucumber with gochujang

 1) We need to cook all the ingredients separately & arrange on the plate for easy assemble on the later stage.

2) Bean sprouts -cook it in a pot of hot water + pinch of salt for about 2-3 mins. Drain & mix with 1 clove of garlic & sesame oil.
3) Spinach -cook in a pot of hot water + pinch of salt for about 2-3 mins. Drain & mix with a tsp of soy sauce & sesame oil.
4) Celery -stir fry with vegetable oil + garlic in high heat for about 1-2 mins.
5) Mushrooms - Slice it & stir fry with vegetable oil + 2tsp of soy sauce + 1tsp of sugar. Add sesame oil.
6) Ground beef- stir fry ground beef with 2 cloves of garlic +2 tsp soy sauce + 1tsp sugar + black pepper + sesame oil.
This is what I have observed , in Korean kitchen, they add sesame oil to almost any dishes. Sesame oil is a very important ingredients in Korean food.
6) Carrot - stir fry carrot with 1 garlic + vegetable oil.
7) Eggs- pan fry eggs with spring onion & cut into strips.
8) Prepare a bowl of cooked rice. It is the fun time to assemble the bibimbap.

 9) Get everything ready. Prepare a chopstick to arrange the mix vegetables. I find it easier to use chopstick.

10) Assemble the assorted vegetables nicely on top of the rice. Display your proud moment & present it to you guest.

This plate belongs to my 7 years old, she make a big fuss because I spend too much time arranging the vegetables. It was almost 8pm & she is creaming for dinners. She make a big fuss & tell me next time mummy can cook this dishes but mummy need not arrange it so nicely. That's is because she is too hungry.

To enjoy Bibimbap, serve with a bowl of pipping hot seaweed soup. Yummy~