Thursday, July 31, 2008

Vegetable Fanfare

After such enthusiastic response to the Tornado Potato post, I wanted to feature another fun food design. Yesterday I made bibim bap, a Korean dish featuring a hodge-podge of cooked vegetables mixed with rice and topped with a fried egg. While bibim bap is categorized under the "tasty comfort food" file for me, it has the benefit of being very healthy too. You have to organize the vegetables in the bowl like this, so that the bright colors are distributed for a pretty presentation:

Here's a quick description of what's in the bowl starting from the top and working clock-wise:
1. Zucchini sauteed with garlic and sesame seeds
2. Sauteed crimini mushrooms with minced onion
3. Toraji namul (bellflower root) that I soaked overnight, then marinated in a home-made red pepper vinaigrette
4. Sauteed baby spinach with garlic
5. Julienned broccoli stems steamed and marinated with soy sauce, sesame oil and sriricha
6. Lean ground beef marinated in the style of typical Korean BBQ
7. Steamed shredded carrots marinated with soy sauce, lemon juice and red pepper flakes

In the center of the bowl is gochu jang, a spicy and slightly sweet red pepper paste. I added flax seed to it for an extra health kick. This condiment makes the dish nice and spicy when you mix it up with the vegetables, hot steamed rice, sunny-side up frid egg (runny yolk is good) and a drizzle of sesame oil.

Making bibim bap is a great way to use up all your vegetables before they go bad. It's also a great way to get your vegetables when you're tired of making salads. Try it today!

3 comments:

Beautydean said...

That's way better looking than the chips and cottage cheese I ate! Well displayed.

Anonymous said...

I love Bibim Bap - it is what I order anytime I go out to eat Korean food. Thank you for showing me how to make it at home for myself and family!

jean said...

Because of this post I had to go get bibimbap last night...though yours looks way better. Make it for me biyatch!