Traditional Korean Bibimbap
Introduction
Looking for a little more Korean-ness in your kitchen? Consider adding bibimbap to the mix: It’s not just a rice bowl — it’s an iconic and rightfully celebrated Korean dish. Made with sautéed veggies, Korean beef preparation, and a rice grain garnished by deep-fried egg on the top sheet, this meal pops distinctly along with its colouring Traditional Korean Bibimbap.
How could you resist the sheer excitement of getting to stir all these things together into a hot mess freadom? When I comes to my favourite food, all the while thinking about it and missing mom and her awesome cooking skills. Eating Korean is all I knew growing up, and it has a lot to do with why I love Korean culture and its food.
A Personal Touch
Bibimbap is extra special to me. It is a meal that my mother cooked frequently, and one that exists as the fusion of our love and our food. RecipeEvery time we Cooked Together with a bowl of Traditional Korean Bibimbap still more than just a meal, is reminiscing us dallying in the kitchen for hours and prepping together every pedestrians. We made do with whatever we could find — the replacements for hard-to-find items: substitutes for this or that Asian cooking ingredient;
Traditional Korean Bibimbap is also great for lazy-making. My apologies to those fans, who might want bulgogi (thinly marinated sliced beef) and other varieties that also have a meat component, but you are likely the vast minority anyway. Miso and soy sauce give you the savory satisfaction, and seasoned vegetables to brighten the whole plate (as well as your table!)
Just plug in a big pile of white or brown or black rice on there next to these mushrooms, carry it out to a few chairs around your kitchen island if you’re feeling freewheelin’, or use them at your dining room table with all the people that are lucky enough to share a giant bowl of this warming dish. Thinking of the meals shared with brothers and sisters in childhood makes it even more special.
What is Traditional Korean Bibimbap?
For any time of day, Bibimbap is essentially a Korean favorite that includes mixing veggies and meat with rice in a bowl. It is a flexible dish that can be adjusted to create so many different incarnations and tailor it to make if work for you, your palate or dietary desires. You may find microgreens bibimbap, along with the traditional versions such as dolsot bibimbap and yangpun bibimbap.
Bibimbap traditionally contains raw beef and uncooked egg yolk, but many prepare cooked ingredients for ease of digestion. As I became older, my mom would frequently make banchan (vegetable side dishes) to go with the bibimbap. Less fresh, or sautéed & seasoned with anything you want to use up vegetables would be a version of this dish that she would make really simply vegetarian hash.
The good ol’ Traditional Korean Bibimbap comes with a sunny side-up fried egg, sesame seeds, and a big drizzle of Bibimbap sauce. This sauce is seriously great on a range of dishes — every bite is just a little bit different, seasoned perfectly to complement the earthy notes in your veg and/or protein.
How to Make Bibimbap
How to make Traditional Korean Bibimbap First thing you do is prepare your meat. Add ground beef mince with meat sauce then set it aside to marinate for around half an hour so that the taste improves. Meanwhile, at this stage on a medium high to high heat and cook the meat in it till its fully cooked which takes abt 3-5 mins.
Combine Ultimate Bibimbap Sauce ingredients in a bowl, set aside then grill until ready. Get your veggies ready next. Prepare Spinach and Bean Sprouts (link to recipe above) Carrots Rinse, peel and Julienne. Next, add a little more than enough cooking oil into the preheated wok with a pinch of fine sea salt, and stir-fry the carrots on relatively high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Repeat with the shiitakes—clean, rinse, and thinly slice them and then cook as you did with A.
Serve with fried eggs as desired (typically sunny side up). In a bowl, put rice and top it with the cooked meat, various vegetables, seasoned seaweed, Traditional Korean Bibimbap sauce and finally the egg. Stir all in bowl and enjoy
ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked white rice you will have leftover but it’s easier to cook rice in a larger amount. You can also substitute with brown rice or quinoa
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 medium size white onion sliced
- 2/3 cup zucchini either shredded or cut into half moons
- 2/3 cup soy bean sprouts or bean sprouts
- 2/3 cup carrots shredded
- 2/3 cup cucumber cut into half moons
- 2/3 cup dried bellflower root thinly sliced; also called “doraji” in Korean*
- 2/3 cup dried fernbrake also called “gosari” in Korean* you may substitute for eggplant if you can’t find this
- 1 cup shiitake sliced
- 2 eggs optional
- 1 tsp sesame seeds crushed
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- Hot sauce to taste
- Sesame oil
- Cooking oil unflavored – I use grapeseed oil
- 1 tsp Soy sauce
- Salt
- *For any Korean specific ingredients you may find this at any Asian supermarket or on Amazon!
Instructions
Prepare and Cook Ingredients
Boil the dried fernbrake in water for 30 minutes. After cooled down, rinse and soak in water for overnight to reduce the bitter taste. Squeeze the fernbrake to remove water and fry with oil over middle high heat. Add soy sauce and some minced garlic, along with a bit of sugar to counteract the saltiness if you want. Pan fry for 2-3 minutes, until cooked throughout.
If using dried bellflower root, soak in cold water for 2 hours. Take it off the water and add a dash of salt, squeeze as much of the rest out. Wash it again to remove any leftover salt and bitterness. It must be considered, otherwise the root should overcook which is why you will saute for a moment in unflavored cooking oil and remaining minced garlic.
This cooks the rice or enters your rice cooker user Even if it was prepared. If not, give rice several rinses cold water (getting rid of the starchy water with each rinse) until all the liquid runs clear. Rice should be washed (1 chawa of rice to 1.5 chawas of water) and kept for half an hour then cooked on medium flame until all the water has evaporated and the rice is ready.
Boil the soy bean sprouts along with salt. Take is off the heat when it start boiling. Boil the spinach, drain, crush some sesame, and mix a little bit. Add some sesame oil. Throw the carrots in a skillet, salt them early“But just barely! Between each vegetable wipe out the pan with a moist paper towel to keep flavors from crossing over.
Traditional Korean Bibimbap Sauce
Bibimbap Sauce Whisk the Bibimbap Sauce ingredients together until sugar is dissolved.
Marinated Beef
Mix the marinade and beef in a bowl. Marinade for at least 30 minutes or overnight. In a skillet, heat the oil over high. Cook the beef until starting to caramelize, 3-4 minutes then remove and keep warm or reheat as needed.
Prepare Vegetables
Rehydrate shiitakes in boiling water then squeeze to remove the liquid. Chop mushrooms and salt carrot & zucchini. Toss and drain 20 minutes.
Cook Vegetables
Use two skillets if possible. For one, heat oil and scramble shiitake mushrooms for 2 minutes with soy sauce, sugar and garlic. In the remaining half, cook carrots until soft and zucchini for 4 minutes was approx. For the spinach, fry in a little oil with splash of sesame oil and some garlic & salt until it goes limp. In the case of beansprouts, boil water and simmer until flexible, season with sesame oil, garlic and only a little bit fish sauce. Allow all vegetables to cool down to a room temp or just above.
Assemble
But make them in the style of eggs you personally like, preferably with runny yolks. Divide hot rice into 2 bowls and top with veg, beef and an egg in the middle. Top with sesame seeds and sesame oil. Top with Bibimbap Sauce and Eat!
Notes
Making a proper Traditional Korean Bibimbap can give you an edge. Rice is key, and while short grain white rice or sushi rice are perfect here, know that the stickier the better for eating with chopsticks. For a solid foundation, I tend to use any white rice you like
As for the beef, go ahead and use thinly sliced beef you can find in the freezer section of Asian markets. If you are going to cut your own, one of the tender ones like tenderloin is best. Freezing the beef for 30 or so minutes will make slicing paper thin slices a lot easier.
With this marinade, the grated apple or nashi pears not only add a delicate sweetness but also tenderises the beef. It’s a popular technique of marinating in Korean cuisine, which adds flavor and helps to tenderize the meat.
Choose a light or all-purpose soy sauce—this will help keep the balance between sour and salty but you can substitute for dark soy if that’s all you have on hand. In other words, while perhaps not so many in the early days of nutrition exploration, dried shiitakes have a more pronounced flavor relative to their fresh counterparts (which can be used if soaking is not practicle).
Gochujang – No Kimchi without gochujang, the spicy fermented powerhouse of a sauce you will staple in for flavor and some probable heat umami. It should be readily available in Asian grocery stores or well stocked supermarkets. Both add to the sweet and tangy flavor of the dish, which you can find in a good-sized grocery store or an Asian grocery store.
Tip: for the most potent flavor use toasted sesame oil and know that it is brown not yellow like untoasted. For best results, use toasted sesame oil containing more robust flavors of fresh sesame seeds keeping in mind it´s brown unlike its yellow untoasted counterpart.
Salt to taste — and you might want to salt earlier in the process as well, particularly if you did not salt your zucchini or carrot: salting those vegetables ahead of time yields a drier grated vegetable (in this case) that is easier to season but I am not asking anyone, not even myself in the future, to dirty another bowl. Keeps well 4-5 days, meal prep friendly, for your bento box or freeze it!
Turn to traditional sources, such as Maangchi, My Korean Kitchen, Korean Bapsang and Beyond Kimchee for recipe references. With a human wealth of wisdom from traditional Korean cooks they deliver priceless checks and notes on real Korean home made cooking.