What’s cooking? World recipes

Use this recipe to make arguably the best known Korean dish around the world: bibimbap. What makes this meal stand out? Not only is it a Korean classic, but it’s also delicious, gorgeous on the plate, and easily tweaked for different palates and spice levels. That means if you’re a typical American or Westerner who can’t handle foods that are extremely spicy, homemade bibimbap is the dish for you since you can easily lower the spice load.

The bottom line is that if you’re a true fan of Korean cuisine, you should know how to make this dish, or at least try it. Bibimbap is to Korean cuisine what apple pie is to American cuisine. To eat, add a small amount of oil and desired amount of gochujang to your finished bowl and mix everything together with a spoon.

Ingredients
2 cups medium-grain Korean rice (or Japanese rice)
1 large cucumber (sliced into thin strips)
1 1/2 cups spinach (parboiled and squeezed of excess water)
2 tablespoons sesame oil (divided)
2 teaspoons salt (divided)
Dash of sesame seeds
1 1/2 cups bean sprouts (parboiled and squeezed of excess water)
2 carrots (julienned)
4 shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated if dried and then sliced)
1 zucchini (sliced into thin strips)
1/2 pound meat, optional (both raw and cooked ground meat work well)
Optional: Fried egg
Serving suggestion: Gochujang (red pepper paste)

Gather the ingredients.

To begin, you’ll need to cook the rice in a rice cooker or on the stove. If you don’t want to use Korean or Japanese rice or are being health conscious, you can try brown rice instead. This will affect the flavor, of course.

Next, give the cucumber strips a saltwater bath for 20 minutes.

Drain the cucumber strips using a sieve.

Then, season spinach with 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and a dash of sesame seeds.

Season bean sprouts with 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and a dash of sesame seeds.

You’ll then need to sauté the carrots with a dash of salt.

Next, sauté the mushrooms with a dash of salt.

After that, sauté the zucchini with a dash of salt.

Then, place the cooked rice in a large bowl and arrange vegetables on top.

If desired, beef, egg, or both can be placed in the center.

Serve each helping with small bowls of gochugang and sesame oil.