Bibimbap is served as a bowl of warm white rice topped with namul (sautéed and seasoned vegetables), beef, a fried egg, and gochujang (chili pepper paste). The ingredients are stirred together thoroughly just before eating. It can be served either cold or hot.
Vegetables commonly used in bibimbap include julienned cucumber, zucchini, mu (daikon), mushrooms, doraji (bellflower root), and gim, as well as spinach, soybean sprouts, and gosari (bracken fern stems). Dubu (tofu), either plain or sautéed, or a leaf of lettuce may be added, or chicken or seafood may be substituted for beef. For visual appeal, the vegetables are placed so that adjacent colors complement each other. Many areas of Korea typically serve a vegetarian version of the dish which may well be the more traditional alternative.
Jeonju Bibimbap (steamed rice with assorted beef and vegetables, Jeonju style)Bean sprouts decide the flavor of Jeonju bibimbap. Those grown from seomoktae (one variety of the bean family from Imshil area) are the best for retaining the subtle texture even after being boiled for long. When cooking rice, the broth in which ox-head was boiled down is used. Bean sprouts are added to rice during the last steaming. It is served with bean sprouts soup and raw egg yolk is used for topping.
Bibimbap is a warm dish made of rice that is cooked in the broth and beef, bean sprouts, spinach, crown daisy, bracken, roots of Chinese bellflower, watercress, and shiitake mushroom on top of rice. Then, all are mixed with hot pepper soybean paste. This is one of the representative local foods of Jeolla-do with magnificent taste and color.
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Crown daisy is a vegetable rich in calcium and vitamin A. One dish of seasoned crown daisy supplies a day's requirement of calcium.
Ingredients
cooked rice (rice 4 C, beef broth 4.5 C), beef 600g, sesame oil, beef round 100g, mungbean starch jelly 50g, pine nuts 1 Tbsp, hot pepper soybean paste with syrup 5 Tbsp, vegetables (bean sprouts 150g, mungbean sprouts 100g, spinach 100g, crown daisy 100g, bracken 100g, roots of Chinese bellflower 100g, watercress 100g, 5 shiitake mushrooms), soup vegetable (bean sprouts 200g), egg, water 4-5 C
Directions
1)
Boil brisket completely and let cool. Remove fats and cook rice with the broth. When cooked rice is hot, mix with sesame oil. Or stir-fry cooked rice with perilla oil.
2)
Boil bean sprouts and parboil mungbean sprouts and watercress. Season with sesame oil and diluted soy sauce. Rub roots of Chinese bellflower with salt, rinse, squeeze water out, and stir-fry. Boil bracken and stir-fry.
3)
Shred beef round and season to make raw beef slices.
4)
Shred mungbeam starch jelly thick and pan-fry egg to make yellow and white egg sheets and shred them.
5)
Put rice in a bowl and arrange various ingredients on rice by matching colors. Put hot pepper soybean paste with syrup in a small bowl.
6)
Bean sprouts soup always accompanies bibimbap. Boil small amount of water, add bean sprouts, and boil 5 minutes with a lid on tightly. Add 4~5 cups of water and season with salt. Add sliced green onions and chopped garlic; boil shortly. Serve in a soup bowl.
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Rice should be cooked with ox-head boiled broth, but it is expensive. So brisket is used instead.
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The kind of bean for growing bean sprouts is 'Semoktae' from Imshil area. When growing bean sprouts, good water is very important.
