Week 20: Rice - Bibimbap

Life has been a bit nuts.  While I've been keeping up on the challenges, I haven't been posting.  I just turned in my master's thesis and I have one more week left in the quarter.  Needless to say, I've been wildly busy so I apologize (again) for the delay in posting! I promise, once my degree is over, you'll get regular updates.  I realize that I may leave you hanging again at some point over the next 8 weeks (Aug 2 is my official last master's related task!!!) so I won't placate you with an "I'll never do it again" statement.  Thanks for hanging in there with me. :)

Andrew and I love Korean food; Andrew more than I, but bibimbap is one of my favorite dishes. I searched for a recipe I could tackle and as usual I ended up taking a bit from here and a bit from there.  This recipe from the NY Times is closest to what I did. This finished pic shows it all finished off with sriracha, sesame seeds and green onions!

I used the marinades it calls for on the carrots, cucumber, and tofu.  I sliced up carrots into matchsticks, I sliced, salted and drained the cucumbers.  

The tofu marinade suggested was delicious and the carrots, tofu, and cucumbers chilled while I cooked up the rest. 

I didn't have spinach, but I had kale and napa cabbage so I used that instead.  I cooked them down and then strained and pressed the liquid of out them.

 

I used a brown rice for the bottom of the bowls.  We don't have the awesome hot stone pots, but we found there wasn't really a need for it if you can prep all the pieces of this dish then quickly compile it all together, the egg will cook nicely. 

Starting from 12 o'clock and going clock wise, you can see the carrots, napa cabbage and kale, cucumbers, mushrooms, then seaweed, with the tofu in the middle. 

I fried up an egg to put on top and voila! My egg is a bit more cooked than Andrews (see next pic) but I like my eggs more done than he does.

This was a beautiful and tasty dish.  I am very proud of it and even given the somewhat time consuming prep, it was totally worth it and I highly recommend trying to make this yourself!