Bibimbap

#cuisines/korean #meals/dinner #dishes/main #scalable #active-time/60mins-or-more #prep-ahead
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/bibimbap
Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 5 cups cooked short-grain rice (about 2 cups dry)
• 12 ounces soy bean sprouts, washed and drained
• 8 ounces of spinach blanched and washed with the excess water squeezed out by hand
• 1 large carrot
• 1 large red bell pepper
• 1 large zucchini
• 1 English cucumber
• 3 to 4 green onions, chopped
• 1 pound fresh lean cut of beef (fillet mignon, flank steak)
• 4 ounces fernbrake (gosari), fresh or soaked from ½ ounce dried gosari (details below)
• 1 ounce dried bellflower roots (doraji), soaked in cold water for 18 to 24 hours.
• eggs, for topping (if desired)
• kosher salt
• vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
• toasted sesame seeds
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsphoney (or sugar)
• Korean hot pepper paste (gochujang)

Instructions

Preparing dried fernbrake (gosari)

If you have presoaked or fresh fernbrake you can use it straight away, but if you have dried fernbrake you’ll need to get it ready to eat. It’s fast if you have a pressure cooker, but if you don’t it will take some time.
With a pressure cooker:

1. Wash ½ ounce of dried gosari and boil it with 5 cups of water in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes.
2. Drain and rinse in cold water a couple of times.
3. Drain. It should make 4 ounces.

Preparing the rest of the ingredients

Soybean sprouts:

1. Put the soy bean sprouts in a pot and add 4 cups water and 2 or 3 teaspoons salt. Cover and cook for 20 minutes over medium high heat. Take out the sprouts with tongs and put them into a bowl, leaving about ½ cup of sprouts in the pot with the water you used to boil them. This is the soup to serve with bibimbap later.
2. In a bowl, mix the sprouts by hand with ½ teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon minced garlic, and 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil. Put them on the large platter.
   Spinach:
3. Cut up the blanched spinach a few times and put it in a bowl. Mix by hand with 1 teaspoon garlic, 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. Cover and put it next to the soy bean sprouts on the platter.
   Other fresh vegetables:
4. Cut the carrot into matchsticks, put them in a bowl, and mix with a pinch of salt. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes until sweating.
5. Cut the red bell pepper into halves, deseed, and slice into strips. Put them in a bowl.
6. Cut the zucchini into matchsticks and mix with ½ teaspoon kosher salt.
7. Cut the cucumber into halves lengthwise and slice thinly crosswise. Mix with ¼ teaspoon kosher salt.
   Beef:
8. Cut the beef into matchsticks and put them in a bowl.
9. Mix with 2 tbsp minced garlic, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, and 2 tsp sesame seeds with a spoon.
10. Cover and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
    Mountain vegetables:
11. Cut the fernbrake (gosari) a few times into bite size pieces. Set aside.
12. Put the bellflower roots (doraji) in a large bowl. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons salt. Rub for a minute to wilt slightly and release some of the bitterness. Rinse them in cold water a couple of times and drain. If you find some roots are too thick, split them lengthwise. Set aside.

Let’s cook!

1. Heat up a pan over medium high heat. Squeeze out excess water from the carrot. Add a few drops of cooking oil to the pan and sauté the carrot for 1 minute. Put it on the platter next to the soy bean sprouts and spinach. Clean the pan with wet paper towel or wash it.
2. Heat a few drops of cooking oil in the pan and squeeze out the excess water from the cucumber. Sauté with ½ teaspoon minced garlic and a few drops of toasted sesame oil for 30 seconds. Put it on the platter. Clean the pan.
3. Heat up the pan with a few drops of cooking oil. Add the red bell pepper and sprinkle a pinch of salt over top. Sauté for 30 seconds. Put it on the platter. Clean the pan.
4. Heat up the pan and squeeze out excess water from the zucchini. Add a few drops of cooking oil and sauté with 1 teaspoon minced garlic, 1 tablespoon chopped green onion, a drop of toasted sesame oil for 1 minute until slightly softened. Put it on the platter. Clean the pan.
5. Heat up the pan with a few drops of cooking oil. Add the bellflower roots and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Lower the heat to medium so as not to brown them. Add 1 teaspoon minced garlic and a drop of toasted sesame oil. Stir for another minute until a little softened. Put it on the platter. Clean the pan.
6. Heat up the pan. Add a few drops of cooking oil. Stir the gosari for 2 minutes until a little softened. Add ½  teaspoon of minced garlic, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, and 2 teaspoons sugar, and keep stirring for another minute. Put it on the platter.
7. Finally, cook the beef until done. Assemble all ingredients (plus gochujang) in a bowl to serve, and top with sesame seeds and green onion.

Journal

• 2025-03-02: made with Maria for dinner. Took a lot of time to prep everything, but came out very well. The beef is super tasty and everything goes together very well at the end, especially with the gochujang. We skipped the gosari and doraji because we couldn't find them at H-Mart, but it was still delicious. Note: everything is very parallelizable, so this could be a good dish to make if cooking as a large group (everyone can do part of it all at once).