It takes a village: Bibimbap

Prof. Hubs and I love Korean food. We especially love Kimchee (pickled cabbage,) Kalbi (beef shortribs,) and Bibimbap (rice and vegetables.) Since our move to Midwestia I have chronicled the lack of feasible ethnic food eateries in our area. And though this fact in itself is really, really inconvenient it actually has forced us to become more adventurous in our own kitchen so that we needn't go without our favorite dishes from around the world-we just have to cook them ourselves. Which is how I came to prepare bibimbap... Let me state that this recipe is the product of a collaborative effort-I must thank several of my Korean friends for their guidance in the production of this dish... Thanks to their tips plus some desperate housediva ingenuity the final product tasted just like my favorite bibimbap from K-town in NYC!!!

DESPERATE HOUSEDIVA BIBIMBAP (for 2)

1 cup short grain brown rice (note: traditional bibimbap uses white rice)

half a bag of washed baby spinach

10 mushrooms (preferably shitake, but white will do in a pinch) cut into slices

10 baby carrots cut into matchsticks or 3/4 cup shredded carrot

1 small zucchini cut into matchsticks or 3/4 cup shredded zucchini

handful of korean bean sprouts (I can't find these in midwestia so don't stress if you can't either)

2 eggs

Sriraicha sauce (or, if you can find it, Gochujang, Korean chili paste)

BULGOGI BEEF (optional..,and soooo delicious)

1 ribeye steak trimmed of fat and cut into little thin bites

3/4 cup soy sauce

3 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp honey

1 onion, diced

5 garlic cloves, diced

splash of sesame oil

splash of rice wine vinegar

About 40 minutes before serving begin to cook the brown rice...it takes about that long.

When rice is close to being done, or IS done it's time to cook the individual components of the dish. Blanche the spinach in boiling water for a minute or two, until wilted. Remove from boiling water, rinse in cold water and squeeze out excess. In a wok or sautée pan heat a bit of sesame oil and cook the carrots until just softened.

Remove carrots from pan, add a dash of sesame oil to pan and cook mushrooms (with a dash of salt) until soft and thin.

Remove mushrooms from pan and add a dash of oil and cook zucchini with a dash of salt until translucent.

Keep the cooked vegetables separate from one another on a plate.

If cooking bulgogi beef, now is the time to heat up a wok on high and add the beef, I just throw the whole thing in there (with marinade) and stir it around for a two minutes until the beef is cooked. In the pan you used to cook the veggies, heat a bit of oil (canola, peanut, etc.) and cook 2 eggs, over easy.

Assemble the plate: One cup of rice, covered with beef, veggies (separate, but next to each other) and fried egg. I like to top with a dollop of sriraicha sauce (because we can't get the special Korean bibimbap sauce here in Midwestia...) and then mix it ALL together and enjoy!!!