Happy Father’s Day (yesterday) to all the wonderful dads, granddads, uncles, and all the male figures out there who are a role model/father figure to our little ones (and sometimes not so little ones…).  I am lucky to have an awesome partner to help me raise our three little ones in this parenting experiment we have undertaken that we, hopefully, don’t mess up.

We had a wonderful weekend filled with fun activities ranging from adult softball to swimming to a birthday party before our relaxing Father’s Day Sunday at home.  I had grand plans for Father’s Day… but well… it didn’t pan out.  I found myself standing in line at Safeway on Saturday night with some nectarines and whipped cream to make crepes for Sunday morning breakfast when I saw a college student in line before me with the Sports Illustrated Warriors Champs edition.  I asked him how much the magazine was, then I thought I should grab one as a last minute gift for my Warriors fan hubby.  He loved it!  And the crepes got raving reviews from the hubby and all three of the kids, so that was a score!  It was such a simple crepe, too!  Just used the basic crepes recipe that I always use, spread raspberry jam onto half of the crepe, then added sliced nectarines (peaches would be great too) and whipped cream.  So good!  You can never go wrong with peaches and cream.

Ken hubby married a Korean woman, me, so we eat a lot of Korean food, and luckily, he loves Korean food! (most of it anyway… I can’t get him to eat rice cakes though)  So dinner tonight was bibimbap.  It’s basically lots of different seasoned vegetables (some pickled, others boiled or stir-fried) with some teriyaki-style marinated beef all mixed with rice; I like to add red pepper paste to mine. It’s gotta be one of the healthiest dishes out there, and it’s Soooooo good!  My mother-in-law joined us for dinner and this is her favorite dish.  She always orders the stone bowl bibimbap whenever we go to Korean restaurants, which is the same thing, they just put the rice in a hot stone bowl so the rice touching the bowl becomes nice and crunchy.

I put together a recipe and measured the ingredients while making this today so I would be able to share it.  I eyeballed some of the ingredients but you can always adjust the seasonings to your own taste.  I tend to make my ingredients slightly more salty then I would normally season them because you’ll be mixing it with the rice, which is not seasoned.

Bulbogi Bibimbap

serves about 5-6

Ingredients

• 2 large cucumbers, thinly sliced
• 1 daikon radish, julienned (about 4 cups)
• 2-3 bunches spinach (not baby)
• 1 bag soybean sprouts (different from mung bean sprouts)
• 3 carrots, peeled and julienned
• 4-5 Mexican squash, cut in half vertically, then sliced
• 1 lb bulgogi beef (thinly sliced beef)
• salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, sugar, brown sugar
• sesame oil, sesame seeds,
• soy sauce, brown sugar, crushed garlic
• cooked calrose rice (sushi rice, not long grain) (4 cups uncooked)

Directions

1. Cook your rice in your rice cooker and cut/prep your ingredients.
2. At least 1 hour ahead of time, pickle the sliced cucumbers by submerging them into a large bowl with salty water (should taste like the ocean) 🙂
3. At the same time, but in a separate bowl, pickle the julienned radish by adding 3/4 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup white sugar, 1TB salt and 1/4 cup water.  Set them both aside.
4. Marinate the beef by massaging about a tablespoon of sesame oil into the meat with gloved hands then add 1/4 cup soy sauce, 4 TB brown sugar, and 3 crushed garlic cloves and mix.  Set aside to marinate.
5. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, then boil the soybean sprouts for 5 mins (becomes somewhat translucent) and drain.  Place drained sprouts into a bowl then season with salt, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil, and 1/2 tsp sesame seeds.  You can also add some crushed garlic if desired; about 1 clove. Mix with gloved hands. Sprouts are done, so set aside.
6. Bring another pot of water to a boil and blanch the spinach.  Don’t overcook the spinach!  Just about a minute should be enough.  Drain, gently squeeze out the water and place the spinach into a bowl.  Add salt, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, and 1/2 tsp sesame seeds, (again, garlic optional) and mix.  It works best if you use food service gloves to mix by hand.
7. Add about a tablespoon of oil onto a frying pan, heat over med high heat.  Add a clove of crushed garlic then stir fry the Mexican squash until cooked. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Add about a tablespoon of oil onto a frying pan, heat over med. high heat.  Add a clove of crushed garlic then stir fry the julienned carrots.  Season with salt and pepper.
9. Drain the cucumbers, gently squeeze excess water from the cucumbers, then place them into a bowl.  Add a little sesame oil (about 1/2 tsp) then mix and the cucumbers are ready. Sesame seeds optional
10. Scoop out the radish from the vinegar and place into a bowl.  You don’t need to drain it completely of the liquid.  You can add red pepper flakes if you want a kick to it, but I didn’t add it for the kids’ sake.
11. Heat the pan and cook the meat until ready.
12. Serve cooked rice in large bowls then place each of the vegetables and meat on top and mix.  Add a little more sesame oil if desired and also red pepper paste if you can handle the heat. 🙂

My kids ate really well tonight!  The girls actually asked for seconds and my boy asked for a huge bowl of food to start off with and finished it!  We love bibimbap!!!  Try making your own~

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful, fantastic, awesome week!

-Flora