Bibimbap

This is week thirteen of the 5th Annual Dark Days Challenge, a 4 1/2 month pledge by participants to eat one SOLE meal a week: a meal as Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical as possible.  Weekly participant recaps are being rounded up by the good people at Not Dabbling in Normal.

My highly thorough analysis of this dish – conducted by ordering bibimbap at every Korean restaurant I came across in Chicago – leads me to the conclusion that it’s essentially a bowl of rice with several complimentary vegetables arranged around the perimeter, along with a nice dollop of chili paste. The vegetables can be sautéed, pickled, or even raw, depending on the season or the region that particular bibimbap hails from. A protein – most commonly an egg, but also meat or tofu – is laid on top of the rice in the center of the bowl. After admiring the aesthetics of all the colorful vegetables for a few seconds, you get to mix everything up until it looks like a really messy stir fry.

In my house, bibimbap serves two purposes: (1) it’s really fun to hear Nina say it over and over and over again – she gets caught in a musical, alliterative loop until she’s beatboxing, and (2) it’s a great way to get my family to eat a variety of vegetables without relying on a sauce or soup.

This particular meal had several local ingredients from the co-op and market, including a regional rice my husband picked up when I sent him on a bulk foods run last week. Two of the items were not entirely SOLE: I used a mix of local and not local mushrooms, and a greenhouse pepper that makes me wonder if the energy used to grow it on a nearby farm had a better or worse carbon footprint than a pepper driven across the country.  I don’t usually have local grains or protein on hand (since any meal I prepare is both vegan and gluten free, those items are exempt from scrutiny for any meal including those for the DDC) – so the regional rice was an apropos addition to a DDC meal. The sprouted tofu, which I made into a faux omelet before cutting it into neon yellow strips, came from who knows where.

I steamed all of the vegetables in my biggest cast iron skillet, adding them according to cooking time. They were lightly seasoned with a few drops of gluten free tamari and toasted sesame oil. The only seasonings I put on the table were chili pepper paste and nori-infused sea salt. Prepping the vegetables and tofu while the rice cooked resulted in perfect timing.

SOLE ingredients: kale, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, sweet pepper (maybe), rice.

Bibimbap

servings determined by how much rice and veggies you prepare

{you will need}
rice
filtered water
a variety of vegetables that are complimentary in both flavor and color
seasonings of choice for the vegetables
red chili paste

{optional – depending on your vegetable selection}
nori-infused sea salt
sesame seeds
rice vinegar

Cook your rice: according to whatever guides you – the directions on the bag, the directions for your rice cooker, boiling it like pasta, or just going with the general rule of thumb of one part rice to two parts water.  If you find that your rice is a little too wet, remove the lid, crank up the heat, and watch it closely as you evaporate the excess water off.  If it’s too dry, add water a couple of tablespoons at a time and steam over a really low flame until your rice is done cooking.

Prepare your vegetables: while the rice is cooking, cut and sauté your vegetables (if you want a cooked bibimbap), or just cut them up if you are going with pickled or raw.  Cold bibimbap often includes sliced cucumber, bean sprouts, kimchi and daikon to name just a few.

Prepare your protein: This is entirely up to you; I find it best to make something that can be cut into strips to match the size of the vegetables.

Plate it up: Visual presentation is very important, and also very easy, with this dish.  Put a mound of rice in the center of the bowl, arrange the vegetables around the perimeter (alternating them by color so that they are visually appealing), and arrange your tofu, tempeh, etc over the top of the mounded rice.  Serve with chili paste, sesame seeds, and any other accompaniments appropriate to the vegetables being served.