비빔밥 and 비빔 Oatmeal...

A couple nights ago my mom invited a friend over for dinner & the menu was 비빔밥 (bibim bap, literal translation: mixed meal). It's basically some rice with sautéed mixed veggies, some seasoned ground beef & an egg (raw if you're adventurous but pretty much however you like it) topped with some dark sesame seed oil & 초고추장 (cho gochu jang, spicy red pepper paste sauce) & you mix it all up right before chowing. It sounds complicated but it's really not; especially if you have a lot of banchan (korean side dishes eaten with rice) in your fridge. It's like the Korean quiche (meaning it's a use up your leftovers in the fridge meal). Traditionally it's served either in a large stainless steel bowl or a SCREAMING HOT stone pot (it's so hot that you can hear the rice sizzling). I like the crispy bits of rice so I tend to let a layer of rice get nice & crispy as I mix everything together...


My mom delegated more labor-intensive work to me. Since a guest was coming over for dinner I couldn't just pull our banchan from the fridge... I washed, peeled & julienned carrots; thinly sliced an onion; washed, soaked & then cooked the white rice; pan-fried the seasoned beef & finally fried each egg to order right before serving. My mom steamed the bean sprouts & blanched the spinach the night prior (translation: she didn't trust me to wash those things properly but my mom's OCD tendancies in the kitchen need to be another post for another day). When my mom came home all she had to do was season the sprouts & spinach. My mom & I love the veggies so we tend to reduce the amount of rice in our bowls but my dad has a seemingly bottomless pit of stomach so he usually makes a motion as if to say "bring it on" when I portion out the rice.


We also had a side of miso soup to go with the 비빔밥 - I like to put a couple spoonfuls of the soup into the rice because I think the soup helps to mix well. Needless to say, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the meal. =)


Halfway through the meal, I realized I forgot to take a picture of my bowl (see I had every intention of blogging the meal) - D'OH! Luckily, there was leftover fixin's so for lunch the next day I warmed everything up & set it over some oatmeal. (I've been in the pattern to have oatmeal for lunch lately & I try new things to add to it so it won't be so plain & ordinary). My lunch bowl was significantly smaller than the bowls we used for last night's dinner - I wanted to feel satisfied not to hate my life due to gluttony. However, I substituted Sriracha sauce instead of 초고추장 & added in some furikake (Japanese crushed seaweed seasoned with sesame seeds & other stuff).

bibim oatmeal