la.foodblogging

Making the rounds at the LA farmers markets, I ended up with a lot of produce. So much that I might not have known what to do with it before they go bad. Bibimbahp is a good way to use them all up.

Bibim-bahp is a Korean dish - a serving of rice with any number of seasoned vegetables, meat, and usually an egg placed on top. The person eating it adds ggoh-choo-jahng, spicy Korean red pepper paste to her own taste, and then proceeds to mix it all together in the bowl. Many restaurants also serve dolsot-bibim-bahp, the same mixed rice, but served in a dolsot, hot stone pot, rather than a regular bowl. The hot stone pot develops a crunchy rice crust around the bottom. When my mom found almost-ready-made bibim-bahp at the market, she was thrilled. Everything, even the ggoh-choo-jahng, is included – just add rice, and a fried egg if you’re so inclined.

Bibim-bahp is not difficult to make in terms of cooking skill, but requires quite a bit of time to prepare each of the vegetables. Inevitably, it also ends up messing up lots of pots, pans, utensils, and plates. It’s labor-intensive, and that’s why we almost never make it at home from scratch. But I am digging for my roots these days, and decided to make it myself.

Bibim-bahp is one of those dishes that is left for interpretation by whomever is cooking it. Traditionally, bibim-bahp has either kong namul or sook-joo namul (both are types of bean sprouts), dahng-geun (carrots), gosari (fernbraken), moo (white radish), shi-geum-chee namul (spinach), and ho-bahk (zucchini). There’s protein, which is usually the same marinated beef as bulgogi, but could also be ground beef, chicken or even tofu. I like lots of vegetables, and if I had my own way every time, I’d just put zucchini and spinach in there. But it wasn’t just for me, so I added some of the traditional things, too. I was feeling very low-carb, so for myself, I mixed everything up on crumbled tofu instead of rice. Bibim-doo-boo :)

Now to go on a tour of Koreatown’s restaurants to see how much better mine is than theirs! ;)

By sarah (see more of her posts). You can find more of sarah's writing at her own website The Delicious Life