Bi Bim Bap, Gringa Style

Hi! Remember me? I used to blog here sometimes. And then I started my PhD and got hired back as a professor and my daughter turned 3 (hello!) and a bunch of other crazy stuff happened and I stopped writing about food. I still cook food, a lot. I still get my CSA and come up with interesting and wonderful uses for local vegetables. And then I forget what I did because I stopped blogging it. Doh. So extra thanks to Tiffany for continuing to post her wonderful recipes and cooking experiences in spite of her insanely busy life.

I’m still doing a very limited sugar diet, which makes it even more challenging to use up certain CSA crops (beets and zucchini – I’m looking at you…). I have relied a lot in the past on ye olde baking to use up the bulk of certain veggies. But I now also spend even more time in front of a computer screen, and often forget to do things like eat and sleep.

My best innovation since everything became insane is my personal Bi Bim Bap recipe. I pretty much just throw some rice in the cooker earlier in the day, and when I notice that it is becoming hard to lift my fingers to type, I head into the kitchen and use whatever I’ve got lying around. Here’s a rough version of my recipe:

1 cup cooked white jasmine rice*
Bottle of Gochujang Sauce (Pretty easy to find in the Asian food aisle. You will want to put it on EVERYTHING.)
1 small sausage, diced
1 egg
1 small zucchini, thinly sliced (1/2 cup)
1 small carrot, thinly sliced
1 small bell pepper, thinly sliced
Olive oil

*I cook my rice with a dash of toasted sesame oil.

Heat a small skillet with a drizzle of olive oil. Add sausage and cook until lightly browned. Remove with slotted spoon to a plate and keep warm. Saute vegetables individually or together in the remaining oil, and remove to plate and keep warm. Fry egg (you may need to add a little more oil).

Spoon a layer of rice into the bottom of a shallow bowl. Add sausage and vegetables. Top with egg. Drizzle with Gochojang sauce.

For CSA folks – you can use whatever veggies work. For a couple of weeks it was all cabbage, all the time for me. You can also garnish with green onions, toasted sesame seeds, or whatever strikes your fancy. Obviously you can go meat free, or use whatever leftover meats you have lying around. At restaurants it’s usually served with bulgogi beef, so leftover bbq meat would be most excellent.