Sunday, May 27, 2012

Bibimbap

One of the things my Mom wanted to do while I was visiting was go to a certain favorite Korean restaurant in Burlington. I was informed that THE dish to order was the Bibimbap and who am I to argue with veteran foodies like my parents? Indeed. It was all they said and much more. A perfect dish for showcasing veggies, hot, spicy, satisfying on many levels and one thing I really appreciated, not too salty. The first thing I did when I went food shopping Friday was to get an assortment of goodies and try to recreate the dish best I could. For a first attempt I did quite well and as predicted DH fell in love with it.



The dish itself has a medium grain rice, cooked plainly, I added a little unsalted butter to mine, then comes quickly and individually sauteed  (or steamed or raw if you prefer) veggies. I used a little peanut oil spiced up with a little toasted sesame oil. My assortment was bean sprouts, spinach, yellow squash, shiitake mushrooms, red bell pepper and julienned carrots. All this topped with a fried egg. The restaurant version also has a little shredded meat and is served in a large and very hot stone bowl. The rice continues cooking and fries up browned and crisp on that stone while you are eating it. On top of it all you add a hot chili sauce ( made from a special paste) and mix it all in. I couldn't find the same paste but found a Korean sweet and hot sauce substitute which we liked. I also added a little rice vinegar to mine although you could do soy sauce too. As seasonal veggies come and go this simple rice bowl will be gracing our table on a regular basis.

It's worth noting that while I was away blogger went and changed up the format.  I am limping along getting to know the ins and outs that are so different from the old draft version I kept for as long as possible. You also might notice a change in the quality of photos. In the beginning they might not be as good while I get use to the lovely camera I was gifted with.



 I'm over the moon about it and all the stuff it can do compared to my little (and getting tired) old Nikon Coolpix.  It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 and is well equipped with a Leica zoom lens.



 Now I just need to learn to get the most from all its wonderful whistles and bells! I can say that the shutter speed is uber fast especially compared to the Nikon, so hopefully no more missed shots waiting for the camera to be ready!



The Nikon will go to the car for on the road photo ops.

Parting shot: Bride of Kong! ( one of the pics Gene sent me while I was away)

7 comments:

Susan McShannon-Monteith said...

The dish sounds yummy except for the mushrooms.
What a great camera.
Queen of Kong is right... is she hoarding her toys!
Susan x

Cindie said...

Korean bowl sounds yummy, wonder how it would taste without the egg, I'm sure it adds a lot to it....I'm allergic to eggs.

Sharon said...

I had a hard time getting pictures to load after about three. I discovered that you can go to the old Blogger by clicking on the gear on the right side of the screen and selecting Old Blogger Interface. I like a lot of the new bells and whistles so end up toggling between the two.

R. Delight said...

Welcome back! That new camera looks sleek and sexy. I had to adjust to the new blogger too. I still have to look around for things at times. They finally fixed the problem I had with uploading photos though! The Bibimbap looks like it would be fun just to say, let alone eat. Tell Cindie I would probably use golden fried tofu instead of egg and maybe make a sauce to replace the runny yoke (unless the yoke was cooked hard?).

Mary said...

yummy dish! I will definitely try it. Welcome back-I just got back from my own travels...

Theresa said...

Susan, it is a nice dish because it is so easy to change up the veggies by what you have on hand. LOVING the camera so far.

Cindie, The egg makes it for me, but I imagine it would be just fine without it

Sharon and Renee, thanks for the blogger tips. I'm back on the old draft version but I see it won't be around much longer. Sooner or later I'll have to deal with the new one like everyone else! I like my firend egg over medium, so there is a runny yoke.

Mary, Welcome back to you too. I see you up on pattern review here and there. Just getting back into sewing and such now. So much to do when I first get home!

Leigh said...

Wow. Serious camera envy here. I have a Panasonic too, the DMC-ZS6. While I love the quality of the photos, the shutter was rather cheap and got stuck. I unstuck it but it won't close all the way so that's annoying.

The bibimbap looks quite tasty. Thanks for the directions. :)