Bibim Bahp aka Magic Mixed Rice...

We (half) Koreans love to mix crap into our rice.

Brine from kimchi, broth from stew, soy sauce from salted crabs... If it's salty, spicy, pungent, delicious, it goes not only on, under, or with, but literally *into* the rice. We take that wide, flat spoon and mix, fold, and incorporate until every bite, almost down to the grain, is uniformly seasoned. And we love eating our rice this way so much that the concept has given way to its very own title and national dish of sorts:

BIBIM BAHP (BEEbeem BAHP)

aka bibim bap aka bibimbap aka 비빔밥 (that's for the googlebots...)

before mix

Which literally means mixed (bibim) rice (bahp).

after mix

While the general idea of the dish is loosely composed of steamed rice topped with mostly vegetable matter, some meat but not much, and some kind of sauce (jahng), there is a *proper* or *typical* preparation that you'll find at most restaurants that serve it - rice, nahmool bahnchahn made of spinach, soybean sprouts, carrots, maybe even fern bracken (gohsahri), a little bit of boolgogi, fried egg on top, and maht (seasoned) gochoojahng (red chili paste) as a dressing. Sometimes, it comes in an earthenware pot that gets so hot that it browns and crisps the rice on the bottom, and then it's called dohlsoht (earthenware) bibim bahp.

before egg

But here in our little bungalow near the sea, bibim bahp is our go-to meatless meal for those days when we're halfway through that ten pound pork butt from the Meximart and feeling a little pigged out, or there's lots of veg sitting in the fridge and begging to be eaten (nothing like nahmool to make little food out of big veg), or possibly maybe perhaps even when we're purposely being extra healthful with ourselves...

after egg (but before mix!)

Aside from being healthy and tasty, the best thing about this dish is that it's easy and adaptable. You could go to the trouble of making nahmool, or you could make it a raw veg meal (I really like the crunch of finely shredded cabbage, some julienned carrots and cucumber, a little chopped green onion and lettuce for extra roughage), do some combination of the two, maybe add in a little bit of browned ground beef or leftover boolgohgi, do the egg, don't do the egg... The mind boggles with the possibilities.

BIBIM BAHP
Serves 1

So assuming you can

- make rice per package instructions,
- fry an egg sunny side up, over easy, or over medium (whichever way you prefer, but you really should leave a little running yolk),
- make nahmool (recipe here) or just chop up some raw veg, and
- make boolgohgi (marinade recipe here), brown some ground beef or just omit meat altogether,

and put about

- a cup or cup and half of that rice into a large bowl (you'll need the space for all that mixing),
- top it with about a cup of veg in whatever proportions you like,
- top that with about a quarter cup of meat if you choose,
- and finally top all that with a fried egg

the only other useful thing I might be able to share with you here is a recipe for what I think is a tasty maht gochoojahng (which is the seasoned red chili paste that comes with any order of bibim bahp) with which to dress all that mishmashed goodness, about 1 tablespoon and half for one serving of bibim bahp for me, the same, more, or less to taste for you. :)

MAHT GOCHOOJAHNG (aka mat gochujang)

- 1/2 cup gochoojahng (고추장) If you don't have a Korean or general Asian market in your area, you can buy it online from H-Mart or koamart.
- 1+1/2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1+1/2 Tablespoons water
- 1 Tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce

before stir...

Stir all ingredients together until all the sugar is dissolved.

af-... Well, you get the picture.

Super simple to put together and really tasty - spicy from the red chili, a little sweet from the sugar, savory from the garlic, an extra punch of umami from the soy sauce, and a lightly nutty finish from the toasted sesame oil. It's great as a raw vegetable dip when you're feeling a little schnacky, as a seasoning for kimchi fried rice, as a base for spicy pork boolgohgi marinade, and as a dip/sauce for sahngchoo ssahm (Korean lettuce wraps). Lots of mileage for little effort.

One deliciously dressed and composed bite of bibim bahp after another with some of your mom's really good kimchi, and there's no questioning the magic in the mix...

shinae