Bibimbap, how I love thee

I have been CRAVING bibimbap consistently over the past several weeks.  I can’t afford to keep visiting my favorite Korean restaurant every time I get this craving, so I’ve decided to try my hand at this dish again.

I started out by marinating some roast beef (yes… I cheated and used deli meat!) in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic powder, and a tiny bit of sugar.  After letting that sit for the afternoon, I cut up some zucchini and cremini mushrooms.

For reasons I previously explained, I am without dolsot pots for my bibimbap.  I decided I would try to recreate the effect of the pots in a large skillet.  Before I threw the ingredients into the skillet, I started a pot of rice on a separate burner.  As soon as that was close to being done… the fun began!

In the large skillet I added:

• pre-shredded carrots (because I like to cut corners sometimes),
• thinly sliced zucchini,
• julienned cremini mushrooms,
• julienned marinated beef,
• spinach (NOTE: bok choy is ideal, but since I didn’t have any on hand… I thew in some spinach!).

Once the combination was sauteed, I removed the mix and put it onto a plate.  Then, I threw the rice into the skillet – I wanted the rice to get that slightly crunchy texture.  Next, I added the red pepper paste and stirred it until mixed.

I let the rice sit in the skillet for a minute as I pulled out a small frying pan to quickly fry up an egg.  Once it was ready, I added the veggie combination back into the large skillet with the rice, and then added the egg on top.  Mix it all up and what do you get?  Delicious bibimbap!

I served the bibimbap with some of the kimchi that I picked up at Grand Asia Market.  The final dish is pictured above on the left.  It was so good!

As satisfying as the it turned out, I realized there was a little…TINY…something missing.  After doing some looking around I realized that I need to add something to the red pepper paste.  Next time, I’m going to try a few things I Eat Food suggests on her blog.