eggs

Bi Bim Bap with Beef and Spicy Sauce /  by Cynthia Raub

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Bi Bim Bap with Beef and Spicy Sauce (Korean Mixed Rice)

I love the Perfect Bite. Salty, a hint of acid, some sweetness, something crunchy, something soft, and a little chew all comprised of vegetables, carbs and protein. This is why I love sandwiches, loaded nachos, burritos or rice salads! Last week, I shared Ottolenghi's Rice Salad with Nuts and Sour Cherries. Similar to that recipe, bi bim bap (translated from Korean it means "mixed rice") has multiple facets, steps, and ingredients that come together to make a delicious bowl of food. The cold vegetables temper the steaming hot rice and beef, which is bound by a luscious and sticky egg yolk. Each heaping spoonful is balance of cold, hot, crunch, soft, sweet, salt and heat. This dish may take a bit of preparation and organization, but don't let that dissuade you from making it! I like to make bi bim bap in large quantities as it stores well in the fridge for a few days. It can then be thrown together from the fridge in the amount of time that it takes you to fry an egg.

Notes: In this recipe I am using and preparing very common vegetables to make a delicious bi bim bap (Korean mixed rice). But to make your own, the vegetable world is your oyster. You can include: sautéed mushrooms, lightly pickled radish, or kale instead of spinach . . . the possibilities are endless! The beauty of this dish is it's inherent flexibility. When storing the different vegetables, it's best to store each vegetable by itself. This way, when you go to make a bowl from the fridge, the vegetables keep their individual characteristics even when they are eventually mixed together. My mom always reminds me to not aggressively season the vegetables, so I'm going to tell you the same thing. This dish is most harmonious when the vegetables are a tad under seasoned to delicately balance the rich egg yolk, spicy sauce and flavorful beef.

Additionally, the bi bim bap sauce recipe I've shared is a versatile sweet and spicy condiment that is delicious and addictive. It's sweeter and less acidic than sriracha, making it a great addition to your hot sauce arsenal. Gochujang, used in the bi bim bap sauce recipe, is a Korean fermented chili paste (kind of like a spicy miso paste), that can be found in the refrigerated section of most Asian supermarkets. 

Serves: 4
Time: 1 hour

For the Marinated Beef
1 pound ground beef
4 garlic cloves
1/2 yellow onion
1" piece of peeled ginger
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon roasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoon light brown sugar or honey
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor and liquify. Place beef in a large bowl and add marinade, combining until well incorporated. Cover and keep in the refrigerator until ready to cook. Marinate for at least 30 minutes up to 2 hours.

Bi Bim Bap Sauce (fermented red pepper paste sauce)
2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean chile paste, found in most Asian markets)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl, whisk to combine, taste to adjust seasoning and set aside.

For the Bi Bim Bap
2 medium zucchini, julienned
12 oz mung bean sprouts
3 carrots, julienned
2 small bunches of spinach (standard size, not baby), washed with root ends trimmed
3 tablespoons sesame seed oil
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
Pinch of sugar
3 teaspoons kosher salt (divided)
2 teaspoons crushed garlic (divided)

To Serve
4 cups of prepared rice (short grain white rice is traditional, but brown rice would be delicious, too!)
4 eggs
Bi Bim Bap Sauce (recipe above)
Marinated Beef (recipe above)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place julienned zucchini in the boiling water for about one minute until cooked through. Remove the zucchini (delicately with tongs or a strainer) and plunge it into an ice bath. Remove, strain well and set the zucchini aside in a small bowl. Dress with 1 heaping teaspoon of kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil. Taste and adjust seasoning.

In the same boiling water, place mung bean sprouts in the water for 3-5 minutes until just translucent and limp. Remove the mung bean sprouts and plunge into the previously used ice bath. Remove, strain and squeeze sprouts of excess liquid, and set the mung bean sprouts aside in a small bowl. Dress with 1 heaping teaspoon of kosher salt, 1 tablespoon of sesame seed oil and 1 teaspoon of crushed garlic. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Refresh the ice bath. In the pot of boiling water, place carrots in the boiling water for 1 minute until cooked through and limp. Remove the carrots and plunge into the ice bath. Remove, strain very well and set the carrots aside in a small bowl. Dress with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt, a pinch of sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Clean spinach of dirt and trim the ends. In the pot of boiling water, place spinach in the boiling water for 1 minute until cooked through and the stems are tender. Remove the spinach and plunge into the previously used ice bath. Remove, strain well (pressing out any additional liquid) and set the spinach aside in a bowl. Dress with 1 heaping teaspoon of kosher salt, 1 tablespoon sesame seed oil and 1 teaspoon crushed garlic. Taste and adjust seasoning. A note on spinach: I would not recommend using bagged baby spinach - it doesn't cook the same as large bunch spinach, and it doesn't hold up well during the final mixing process.

Cook the beef by heating a large skillet on medium-high heat and cook the beef until browned, fragrant, and cooked through. You may have to cook the beef in two batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.

Meanwhile, heat a nonstick pan on medium-high heat and coat with cooking oil. Crack eggs into pan and fry until the whites are opaque and the bottoms of the eggs are crisp and brown.

To Assemble: In a large bowl, scoop 1 cup of fluffed rice into the center. Around the perimeter, arrange 1/4 of each vegetable around the rice, spoon 1/4 of the beef mixture. Top with a fried egg.

Serve the bowl with the spicy Bi Bim Bap sauce on the side and a spoon to eat with. Immediately before eating, mix and toss all of the ingredients in the bowl together: break up the egg white, incorporate the yolk into the rice, while tossing the vegetables together. Dress with sauce and enjoy!

Fresh Egg Pasta /  by Amy Cantu

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I never fully understood why anyone liked pasta with butter and parmesan. It always just sounded bland and boring to me. I filed it under "picky kid food". This luscious and ethereal fresh egg pasta changed my entire understanding of what pasta with butter and parmesan could actually mean. These wide ribbons were at once delightfully delicate and richly filling. A quick toss with a pat of butter and shower of grated parmesan infused the springy strands with a bit of luxury and saltiness without masking its simple glory. Cynthia and I went mad for it - dancing around the kitchen, swooning, moaning, eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-our-heads, madness. This fresh pasta meets and exceeds any and all expectations you might have for homemade noodles.  If eating a bowl of nothing but plain pasta is too one note for you, (I promise that I struggled to consider eating anything else with it,) Cynthia's spring vegetables are a bright and punchy (if not guilt-appeasing) match to the simple indulgence of homemade pasta.

Notes: Homemade pasta is not terribly difficult to make, even for a novice. It can even be made with no special equipment, except perhaps a rolling pin. I had a pasta machine collecting dust in the closet (I almost forgot I even had it and only used it once 10 years ago), so I pulled it out to see if it still worked. It does, and it's been getting a lot of use ever since we tested this recipe. I pulled inspiration and direction from both Serious Eats, which has yet to fail me, and also a recipe from Melissa Clark in New York Times Cooking. I love the delicate richness of an extra egg yolk and detailed, fool-proof directions from Serious Eats; I also liked the addition of olive oil in Melissa Clark's version, which added flavor and made the dough easier to roll out. My first batch of pasta sported some ragged edges and uneven texture, but it still tasted better than any pasta I'd ever eaten. So, don't toss out any uglies - close your eyes and enjoy the perfect taste!

If the recipe makes more pasta than you need, the strands can be twisted together into a few loose nests and then frozen to cook later. The frozen pasta can be cooked without thawing, adding an extra minute or two to cook through.

Time: 1 hour
Serves: 4-6

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon extra version olive oil
2 eggs
4 egg yolks

Dump the flour onto a clean work surface, making a large well in the center. Sprinkle the salt and drizzle the olive oil over the flour. Carefully pour the eggs and egg yolks into the well. Use a fork to break up the egg yolks and beat well. With a bench scraper, fold flour into the egg, creating a shaggy dough ball. Scrape the dough from fingers then continue to knead the dough using the heels of your hands until the dough is very smooth and elastic. Add additional water 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough feels too dry, or add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time, if the dough feels too wet. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest at least 30 minutes on the countertop or overnight in the fridge.

To use a pasta machine:

Cut dough into quarters. Place one quarter on a lightly floured work surface and re-cover the remaining dough. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into an oblong shape about 1/2-inch thick.

Set the pasta machine to the widest setting. Pass the dough through the pasta machine to make a sheet, then repeat 2 more times. 

Place dough on a lightly floured work surface. Fold both ends in so that they meet at the center of the dough, and then fold the dough in half where the end points meet, trying not to incorporate too much air into the folds. Using rolling pin, flatten dough to 1/2-inch thick. Pass through the rollers 3 additional times.

Reduce the setting, and repeat rolling and folding the dough, passing it through the machine 2 or 3 times before going to the next setting. For pappardelle and fettuccine, stop rolling when the dough is about 1 or 2 settings wider than the thinnest one on your roller. For lasagna noodles, and for ravioli and other stuffed or filled pasta, go to the thinnest setting. 

Narrow the setting by 1 notch and repeat the folding and rolling process. Repeat once more (the dough should now have passed through the third widest setting). Continue passing the dough through the rollers, reducing the thickness by 1 setting each time until it reaches the desired thickness. It should now be very delicate and elastic to the touch, and slightly translucent.

Place rolled dough onto a work surface or baking sheet lightly dusted with flour or lined with parchment paper, folding the dough over as necessary so that it fits; sprinkle with flour or line with parchment between folds to prevent sticking.

Cover dough with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel to prevent drying, then repeat rolling and folding process with remaining dough quarters. If making noodles, cut dough into 12- to 14-inch segments. Run the dough through the pasta machine again using the cutter attachment, or cut the dough into your desired width using a pizza cutter or chefs knife.

If rolling by hand:

Cut the rested dough into 2 pieces, keeping them covered with plastic wrap or a dish towel when not in use. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough until it is as thin as a penny for fettuccine and pappardelle, or even thinner for lasagna sheets. This will take some time and arm strength, but the process is easy and the results are rewarding! Cut the noodles to the desired width and length using a pizza cutter or chefs knife.

To cook the pasta:

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil, add fresh pasta and boil for 1 to 3 minutes, depending on thickness of the pasta. Drain well. 

To enjoy this simple indulgence, toss noodles with butter, a light sprinkling of coarse salt, and a heavy shower of freshly grated parmesan cheese. Perfection!