Korean Rice Bowl (Bibimbap) with Foraged Greens

Now that spring is officially here, in general, the only things I usually buy from the store, when I do go, are meat and dairy products (sometimes grain/flour as well, but I buy rice in bulk and bake my own bread so that’s an every so often thing). Vegetables, both wild and cultivated, are now coming in from my garden in full force, and a side effect of that is all the money I save from not having to buy it in the supermarket means I’ll splurge a little more on the cut of meats I get. I’m also in a bit of a hurry to get rid of the residual supermarket vegetables (like that bag of bell peppers I lost my mind over from Costco two weeks ago) I bought in preparation for the continuous harvests.

We’ve actually been eating bibimbap a lot but I never found the time to sit down and write about it. The prep is pretty fast, mostly chopping and sautee-ing, and you could make vast quantities of the toppings to store for later, and everyone can put whatever they like on top, and make it as spicy or as mild as they prefer. In this particular bowl, I used hairy bittercress since that’s the weed that’s been popping up the most in my garden, but you can use garlic mustard, dandelions, hostas, or any other edible herbaceous weed/foraged greens you come across.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup hairy bittercress (or other foraged greens), chopped
• 2-3 slices short rib, American kobe/wagyu, chicken thigh pieces, pork belly, or 2 – 3 tablespoons ground beef
• Sesame oil, for sautee
• 1/4 cup Onions, sliced
• 1/4 cup Bell pepper, sliced (optional but recommended)
• 1/4 cup Mushrooms, sliced (optional but recommended)
• 1/4 cup Zucchini, sliced (optional but recommended)
• 1 egg (duck or chicken), sunnyside or over easy
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sake/mirin
• 1 pinch sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Gochujang (Korean pepper paste) to taste
• 1 cup cooked rice

1. Place rice in a large bowl on the bottom.
2. Sautee the hairy bittercress (or whatever wild greens you’re using) with minced garlic in a little sesame oil over medium heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set on top of rice. With each of the vegetables you are using, separately sautee them in sesame oil, adding salt and pepper to taste, until tender and set them on top of rice.
3. Marinate meat for five minutes in soy sauce, sake/mirin, and sugar and then sautee in sesame oil over high heat until desired done-ness (anywhere from rare to well done for beef, well done for pork/chicken.) Place on top of rice.
4. Place over easy/sunnyside egg on top of rice. Add a dollop of Gochujang, to taste. Less if you don’t like it spicy, more if you do. Mix well before eating.