Bee Bim Bop

This is Bee Bim Bop, or "mixed up rice" in Korean. My brother spent some time in Korea while he was in the Army. He brought back a love of Korean food and shared it with the family. Since then we occasionally go out for Korean food, but it's kinda pricey at a restaurant.

When the kids and I were at the library one day, I came across this book, "Bee Bim Bop" by Linda Sue Park. I knew we had to check it out. As a bonus, there is a recipe for bee bim bop in the back of the book!! In truth, bee bim bop is as unique to each family as vegetable soup and cornbread is to southern families, each house putting their own "spin" on it. But we did follow the recipe pretty faithfully and it was delicious. Better than the version we'd had at the Korean restaurant. I highly recommend giving this a read and making "mixed up rice" for dinner one night.

Bee Bim Bop

2 c rice
1 lb sirloin tip beef, sliced thinly
2 carrots, peeled and julienned (cut into thin strips)
1 lb spinach

1 lb mung beans

4 eggs
cabbage, sliced into strips (optional)
oil
salt and pepper

Beef Marinade:
2 minced cloves of garlic
2 green onions, chopped
5 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp seasame oil
1/8 tsp pepper

Put all marinade ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Add beef and mix well. Throughout the cooking of this meal, mix the beef so the marinade coats everything.

Cook rice according to package directions or in an awesome rice cooker like this. I recommend long grain or sushi rice.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a small skillet. Whisk eggs in a bowl until combined. Pour 1/4 of the eggs into hot skillet and then flip to make an egg pancake. Cook all four eggs like this. Stack them on a cutting board and cut thin strips of eggs. Place on a warm platter. (If you keep this platter in the oven on a very low heat, everything wil stay warm.)

In the same hot skillet add more oil if needed and saute the julienned carrots until tender. Put on platter.

In the same skillet add 1/2 c water and 1/4 tsp salt. When the water steams, add the mung beans and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and put on platter.

Now heat a large skillet with another bit of oil. Add fresh spinach to the skillet and saute until tender about 3 minutes. Add to platter. Repeat this same step with cabbage.

The last step is to cook the beef. In the large hot skillet add a little more oil. When hot add the beef and the marinade and cook for 2-3 minutes until the meat is browned. Add the meat to your platter. Bring the marinade beef juices to a boil for 1 minutes. Pour the juices into a gravy boat or mug.

To serve: put a scoop of rice into a bowl. Let each person pick out toppings including the beef and veggies. Pour a little of the pan juices over the top. Then mix it all up with your chopsticks (hence the name Bee Bim Bop) and enjoy!