Bibimbap

Ingredients

• 400 g short grain rice
• 300 g beef mince
• 250 g spinach
• 200 g beansprouts
• 2 carrots, in fine matchsticks
• 150 g shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 4 eggs
• 4 tbsp gochujang
• 3 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, grated
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
• 4 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar

Method

1. Cook the rice

   Rinse and cook the short grain rice by the absorption method and keep it hot. Short grain rather than basmati — you want it to clump slightly so it holds the toppings.

2. Make the sauce

   Mix the gochujang with the vinegar, sugar, a spoonful of sesame oil and a splash of water into a spoonable sauce. Neat gochujang is too thick and salty to distribute through a bowl.

3. Season each vegetable separately

   Blanch and squeeze the spinach; blanch the beansprouts; fry the carrots and mushrooms. Dress each one on its own with a little sesame oil, garlic and salt. This is the actual technique of bibimbap — cooked together they merge into a stir-fry and lose the point.

4. Fry the beef

   Brown the mince hard with the soy and a little sugar until dark and slightly sticky.

   8 min

5. Fry the eggs

   Fry the eggs in hot oil so the whites are crisp at the edges and the yolks still liquid. The running yolk is a sauce in its own right once everything is mixed.

6. Arrange, then destroy

   Arrange the vegetables and beef in separate wedges over the hot rice, top with the egg, and add sesame seeds. Bring it to the table looking neat — then stir it all together hard before eating, which is what bibimbap literally means.