One of our favorite Korean dishes is bibimbap (pronounced BEE-bim-bop), a comfort food recipe that’s easily customizable to your tastes. It combines rice, protein, fresh vegetables and spicy Korean barbeque sauce.

The dish is traditionally made, mixed and served in a Korean stone bowl (also called hotstone or dolsot). You can use a regular skillet and a dinner plate.

With a stone bowl, the rice on the bottom becomes extra crisp and crusty and is considered a bonus, like the socarrat on the bottom of paella pans.

Already low in calories and healthful, if you substitute a [nontraditional] whole grain for the white rice, it becomes a very nutritious dish. Consider black, brown or red rice, or barley (bap is the Korean word for cooked rice). Quinoa fans: Go for it!

Below are five easy steps to making bibimbap at home from Bibigo, maker of Korean pantry products.
 
 
RECIPE: EASY HOMEMADE BIBIMBAP

Ingredients

 
 
Condiments

 
Optional Garnishes

 
Preparation

1. COOK the rice and vegetables. Slice the raw vegetables.

2. MAKE the marinade: Combine soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and pepper in a mixing bowl.

3. COMBINE the marinade and protein in a skillet over medium-high heat, and stir frequently until just cooked through. If you are using cooked vegetables (bean sprouts, mushrooms, onions, spinach, e.g.) you can cook them in this skillet.

4. PLACE the rice in bowls or on plates, and top the rice with the cooked protein and cooked vegetables, reserving the cooking juices. Arrange raw and cooked vegetables atop the rice. Mix the pan juices with the gochujang sauce.

5. FRY the eggs sunny-side up and place one on top of each bowl. Right before eating, toss in the gochuchang sauce. Garnish to taste and serve with gochujang sauce.
 
 
CHUSEOK, “KOREAN THANKSGIVING”

[1] Bibimbap served in a traditional stone bowl, with a ramekin of gochujang sauce (photos #1 and #2 © Bibigo).

[2] Bibimbap served on an American dinner plate instead of a bowl (photo © Bibigo).

[3] Gochujang sauce, a Korean hot paste or sauce (photo © Chung Jug One O’Food).

[3] Kimchi, spicy fermented cabbage with optional other vegetables. You can make your own or buy it at Whole Foods, Asian markets, and other stores (photo © TriFood).

Most people travel back home for the holiday to the head of the family (usually the grandparents’ home). There is always a large gathering of family, delicious foods to eat, and often a gift for the hosting family.

The gathered family may also hold a ritual during Chuseok to pay respects to their ancestors. This is usually done with a memorial table holding an offering of food and drinks.

You can certainly make bibimbap for the occason. Traditional popular foods include:

 
 
ABOUT GOCHUJANG PASTE

Gochujang (pronounced ko-chu-JONG, also translated as kochujang) is a Korean hot chile pepper paste, spicy, but not too hot. It is made from glutinous (sticky) rice, red chiles, fermented soy beans and salt.

Gochujang is one of the three indispensable condiments in Korean households, along with doenjang, bean paste, and ganjang, Korean soy sauce.

The popular condiment is used in bibimbap as well as in bulgogi (barbecued meat wrapped in lettuce leaves), tteokbokki (a snack food made from soft rice cake and fish cake), and in salads, stews, soups and marinated meat dishes.

You can also spread it on burgers and sandwiches for some fusion flare, use it as a breakfast condiment with eggs or hash browns, or mix it with soy sauce, rice wine and a bit of brown sugar to make a delicious dipping sauce.
 
 
MORE!

> Here’s a different recipe for bibimbap (photo #4).

> The history of bibimbap.

> Bibimbap with SPAM instead of beef.
 
 
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*Bulgogi is thinly sliced, marinated and grilled beef. The word literally means “fire meat” in Korean.
 
 
 

If everything tastes better with bacon—as many Americans would have it—than everything tastes better in a bacon bowl.

That’s what the manufacturers of Perfect Bacon Bowl say. While we might not want to toss fruit salad or ice cream into one, we do agree that a bowl made of 100% crisp bacon is great for:

 
The dishwasher-safe, bowl-shaped gadget cooks bacon to a perfect bowl shape, in the oven, toaster oven or microwave. Just wrap bacon slices around the form, cook. and you’ve got edible bowls made completely from bacon.

You can also use the device to make bread bowls for soups and stews, cornbread bowls for chili, and wherever your imagination takes you.

See the video.

Order on Amazon. A box of two bowls is just $5.87, with free shipping on orders over $35.

That’s easy to reach when you choose Perfect Bacon Bowl as a stocking stuffer for your bacon-loving friends and family!
  

It’s been Hell Week at THE NIBBLE.

Starting last Monday, the server at TheNibble.com was hacked. No website was “served” for three days; just the message, “server not found.”

Then, it was our blog’s turn to go crazy. It’s hosted on a separate WordPress server.

The blog “disappeared” on Friday, with www.thenibble.com/blog yielding only the message “server not found” or a totally blank page.

As of ten minutes ago, it’s back.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience; thanks to all for your patience. After a tall cup of coffee—and a well-deserved cheese danish—we’ll get back to writing and publishing everything we’ve been unable to do since last Friday.

We normally don’t promote Kickstarter campaigns because we have limited bandwidth, and prefer to focus our efforts writing about food.

But here’s an organization we feel strongly about, and your chance to pay it forward for very little.

The Hot Bread Kitchen is a Harlem based artisanal bakery that trains disadvantaged women to become professional bakers. They are raising Kickstarter funds for two scholarships.

The education will create long-term income opportunities for immigrant women, who can then obtain better-paying jobs to support themselves and their families. The graduates typically experience a 77% wage boost, moving on to jobs with benefits and room for career growth.

You can donate as little as $1 to the Women Bake Bread Scholarship.

Thanks for your help!

Got your goat?

AgLocal has it! The e-tailer sources its meats from family farms that treat their animals well. The goal: a marketplace where consumers can easily purchase high quality meats while actively supporting the development of sustainable, regional farms. Learn more at AgLocal.com.

And here’s some news: Goat is the most widely consumed protein in the world. It is also one of the most sustainable animals to raise, eating mostly brush and weeds.

Yet, while Americans love goat cheese and other goat milk-based dairy products, we rarely eat goat meat. In fact, it’s hard to find outside of international markets and butchers. Even the Italian restaurants of our youth that had goat on the menu have it no more. Where has all the goat meat gone?

This recipe, adapted by the AgLocal Test Kitchen from the August 2012 issue of Good Food Magazine, is an easy way to introduce goat into your cooking repertoire.

Ingredients For 4-6 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor and purée. Heat oil in a Dutch oven and add the onion mixture. Cook for 5 minutes until softened. Add the peppers, curry leaves, thyme, curry powder and 2 teaspoons salt and cook for 2 minutes more until fragrant.

2. ADD the goat meat and cook for 5 minutes until sides are browned. Add the tomatoes and stock and season with salt and pepper to taste. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and leave to simmer for 2 hours.

3. UNCOVER and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Add the beans to heat through. Slowly whisk in lemon juice and yogurt. Taste and add more yogurt and lemon juice to cut through spice if needed. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.