06.08.12_Korean Bibimbap over Rice

Jonathan got a new job a month or two ago. You may have noticed a quick dip in our content around that time, but we are definitely back on track. Though his new job is a great opportunity for him, it sometimes keeps him at work late. The disparity in our schedule was very obvious on Friday, as I got off work at noon, and he left at 6 p.m. I was feeling rather daring, so I decided to take on the Korean Bibimbop.

I have never had this dish, but it took one look at the ingredient list on the wonderful blog, Queen of Quinoa, for me to know how much I'd love it- Carrots? Zucchini? Asparagus? A FRIED EGG? Yes, please, on all accounts.

We made very few modifications to this dish. We doubled all of the ingredients, and (after realizing we did not have any quinoa in the house) served it over rice instead of quinoa. My friend Meghan left work early to come over for our periodic "wine-time" - does anyone but Jonathan work until 5 on Fridays? - and ended up staying for dinner, which is why I doubled the recipe.

I started by prepping all of the vegetables. I could have used a mandolin for this, but I was content using our knife. After julienning the carrots and zucchini, I removed the ends of the snap peas and set these vegetables aside for later. Finally, I chopped the asparagus into 1" pieces and tossed them in olive oil, S&P and red pepper flakes, and laid them out on a baking sheet.

I roasted the asparagus at 400 degrees for ~20 minutes. While that was cooking, I set up the rice cooker to make four servings of rice. I threw the peas, carrots and bean sprouts into the steamer basket and let them cook above the rice.

Once the asparagus and the steamed vegetables were cooked, I sauteed the zucchini for a few minutes. I then added the asparagus, steamed vegetables and tamari to the pan, along with a couple teaspoons of Sriracha for some much needed heat. I let this cook for a minute or two.

To prepare each dish, I put the cooked rice in the bottom of each bowl and placed the vegetable mixure on top and added some scallions. For the finishing touch, I cooked three delicious sunny-side-up eggs and laid them over the vegetables. Traditionally, this dish is served with each vegetable in its own separate section of the bowl, but let's be honest- we're going to stir them all together anyway.

This was an incredible dish. It takes a lot of prep and includes many different cooking methods, but it is definitely worth it. Our guest Meghan enjoyed it, too. It's always a good sign when two midwesterners - she and I - go crazy about an asian veggie stir fry!

I selected this post to be featured on my blog’s page at Vegetarian Blogs.

01.25.12_Kung Pao Potatoes

I was really excited when I found this recipe that took frozen french fries and added them to an Asian stir-fry. I love french fries. I love Asian food. Sounds perfect. The shopping list was super short for this recipe as well since I had almost all of the ingredients in the house except the fresh produce and the fries.

While the rice was cooking in the rice cooker (we used brown rice because it's what we had) we cooked the fries like you normally would in the oven. As the fries were cooking I did all the prep work. All I had to do was cut up a red onion, a red bell pepper, and mince some garlic and ginger. I also went ahead and made the sauce that consisted of water, soy sauce, vinegar, cornstarch (the recipe calls for cornflour), ketchup, chili sauce, and sugar. We left out the red chilies because I didn't have any and decided to add some extra chili flakes to the stir-fry to make up for it. Once the fries were cooked, I threw the garlic, ginger, onion, bell pepper, and chili flakes into a skillet with some oil. After a few minutes I added the the sauce and fries, brought to a boil and simmered for a few minutes.

We forgot to top the Kung Pao Potatoes with peanuts which I did not even realize until right now. I also just realized that the recipe called for sesame oil, which I did not use. Sad. We also served edamame on the side for some veggies. Perhaps the fact that we botched the recipe pretty badly is why we were both underwhelmed by the recipe. The sauce didn't have as much flavor as I hoped but it was fine (perhaps because I didn't have the red chilies and forgot to use sesame oil?). I also realized as I was making it that it was a starch on top of another starch. I think if I were to change the recipe a bit I would use tofu instead of potatoes to remove one of the starches, and I would change the ratio of the ingredients in the sauce so it was a bit more flavorful and less watery. At least the recipe was super easy!