Multicoloured bibimbap!
Ingredients: 240g rice - 1 small bowl fresh spinach - 1 big carrot - 1 small yellow or green courgette - 1 bowl red cabbage - 2 bowls mushrooms (I used 1 bowl button mushrooms and 1 bowl shiitake) - 1 bowl bean sprouts - 1 bowl broccoli florets - 1 bowl kimchi (you can now find it quite easily online or in Asian supermarkets) - 4 Tbsp gochujang (the famous Korean chilli paste, again that you can find online or in Asian supermarkets) - soy sauce - sesame oil - golden sesame seeds - pepper
For the meat and marinade: 120g finely sliced beef - 1 Tbsp soy sauce - 1/2 tsp caster sugar - 1/2 clove garlic - 1/4 tsp finely grated fresh ginger - pepper
Start preparing the meat. Cut it into small pieces, put it in a bowl with all the ingredients for the marinade and give a good mix.
Thoroughly rinse the rice and drain it well.
Put 2 saucepans of water on the hob. One with salted water for the rice, the other without salt to steam the vegetables.
Remove the stalks from the spinach leaves and chop them roughly.
Peel and cut the carrot into matchstick. Or to go faster, grate it very coarsely.
Cut the courgette in 4, lengthwise and then, in slices.
Finely slice the cabbage.
Cut off the stems of the mushrooms and slice them.
By now, the two pans of water should be boiling.
Put the rice in the salted boiling water. Place a steaming basket on top of the other. Steam, separately, the spinach, carrot (barely, though), mushrooms, broccoli and bean sprouts, until they’re done. I can’t tell you how long they each should cook, it depends on how you like them. The tip of a knife should help you know if they’re done or not. Just make sure they are firm with a bite to them. The only one that doesn’t need to be cooked is the cabbage, then.
Drain them well and drizzle some soy sauce on top as well as a tiny bit of sesame oil. You could also add some pressed garlic to the spinach and mushrooms. Keep each vegetable aside, separate from one another, covered to keep warm.
The rice should be done, now. Drain and keep it aside and covered as well.
Heat up a frying pan on very high heat. Pour a lug of neutral oil and when it starts to smoke, toss in the meat, quickly drained. Really just a toss, if you cook it for too long, it will become hard and chewy.
Now, all there is left to do is the eggs. Heat up a large frying pan and put barely half a centimetre of water in it. Crack in the eggs, cover and quickly cook. What I do is I put them in a pastry ring but when I do that, my family usually call me crazy so, do as you like.
It’s ready! or almost, it’s time to plate.
In each bowl, put rice with a tablespoon of chilli paste in the middle (or less, if you’re not into such hot foods), then an egg and around, forming a lovely crown, the kimchi, meat, spinach, carrot, cabbage, courgette, broccoli and mushrooms.
Put some sesame seeds on the mushrooms, meat and courgette.
And of course, you can discard the meat of a vegetarian version.