Weekly Recipe: Bibimbap

So who's good at their rice dishes comprised pickled cucumber and carrot, marinated beef, stir-fried spinach and bean shoots, sesame seeds and gochujang?

  

This is bibimbap, a Korean mixed rice dish that has a lot going on but is actually really easy to prepare. Marinate beef steaks in two tablespoons of soy sauce to one tablespoon of sesame oil (I did it overnight so that it would be ready when I got home from work) and then cut them into thin strips.

Julienne a carrot and half a Lebanese cucumber and sprinkle on a tablespoon of salt - let that sit for 30 minutes and whilst it's sitting mix together a tablespoon of caster sugar and four tablespoons of rice wine vinegar on the stove top until the sugar is dissolved. Then rinse away the salt with several washes and replace  with the vinegar mix.

Cook the beef in a little peanut oil on the stove. When cooked to your liking, sauté bean shoots and spinach in the remaining marinade. And on another burner, fry an egg each in oil.

Put steamed Jasmine rice in a bowl and top with the vegetables, meat and egg. Add a teaspoon of gochujang (chilli pepper paste) on the side (or put it in the marinade if everyone who's eating likes chilli) and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.

Then stir it all together just before eating.