Bee Bim Bop

I was inspired to make this when our son came home from pre-school talking about Bee-Bim Bop, both the children's story by Linda Sue Park and the dish...basically the story revolves around a young girl helping her mother shop for and prepare this traditional Korean dish for her family. At the end of the book, they have a recipe designed to involve a child in the preparation. I'm recapping the essentials of the recipe here, with some of my tweaks, as the dish is tasty in its own right. But if you want to replicate the process of engaging your child as sous chef on this one, I encourage you to get the book!

Ingredients

MARINADE:

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 scallions, chopped

5 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp vegetable oil

dash black peper

(the book lists roasted sesame seeds and/or tbsp sesame oil as optional ingredients, we didn't use them)

OTHER:

2 cups rice; I like long-grain brown for health & taste

1 lb sirloin tips, sliced very thin across the grain

2 carrots, peeled & julienned

4 cups or so spinach

kimchee (Korean pickled cabbage) I used a prepared version from Whole Foods

Note: one would typically also have thin slices of egg as one of the topping but our son is allergic and we didn't use, nor miss it. It also calls for a pound of mung bean sprouts which we didn't have available.

Preparation

First, cook the rice in 3 cups of water, keeping in mind that brown rice can take 30 minutes or more. As the rice cooks, make the marinade andcombine it with the steak. Then get all the other items prepped for cooking as noted above. Heat a wok or large skillet and a tsp of oil. First stir fry the carrots until tender; then the spinach (just needs a few seconds to wilt if using baby spinach). Wipe the pan out a bit after the spinach, prior to cooking the steak. Place each item in a separate serving bowl when it is done being cooked. Cook the steak last, until it has just begun to turn brown. This will only take a minute or so. Pour the steak and all the juices together into a serving bowl.

Place the serving bowls on the table for self-service. Start with the rice, then add in the other items on stop of the rice. I recommend starting with a just a bit of the kimchee if you're new to it, then add more if you like. It's a strong flavor.

Wine Pairing: I served this with '08 Layer Cake Shiraz from Southern Australia. It's a tasty wine, and aptly named, has distinct elements of chocalate in the taste. Ideally, for this dish, something with a bit more spice would be ideal.

WBW #60: Was looking for more from this Zin

The sun was shining Friday morning, so it seemed like a good time to pull some ribeye out of the freezer to grill later, and get into the theme of the 5th Anniversary Wine Blogging Wednesday (WBW) event. For the unitiated, WBW is a monthly event where wine bloggers around the world choose and write about wines that respond to the theme of the month. This month the host is Sonadora of Wannabe Wino, and she's asked to write about our favorite grilled food and how it goes with Zinfandel.

This Zin theme for WBW is certainly one I relished. A visit to the noted Zin producer, Ravenswood, piqued my interest in wines. The big, juicy and sometimes spicy flavors of zin are to my liking, and it's a standby choice for meats with a spicy element to the sauce. Hence, it's a natural partner for the grill.

I had a bottle from Ridge, a well-regarded Zin producer. The 2007 Ridge Zinfandel from Paso Robles ($30), Dusi Ranch was especially promising as this is considered one of the top vineyards for Zin in the region; I'd previously enjoyed a Four Vines zin from here.

Well, the skies opened up around mid-day and we had off-and-on heavy showers through the evening. My ribeye would be skillet-roasted instead of grilled. Alas, the disappointment didn't stop there, as I'd say the Zin didn't meet my expectations either. The bouquet was of dusky violets, and the wine showed a deep ruby color in the glass. The first taste it was still tightly wound, taste of cherry. After decanting for about 15 minutes, it opened up, and had a good fruit forward taste and pleasant finish. Fine drinking, to be sure, but it didn't really show any spicy element, something I like in a zin. At this price point, I'd like to see more complexity and structure; instead, I found this to be just a big juicy taste.

There is still time before the Aug. 12 WBW deadline, so perhaps I will find some clear skies and spicier zin between now and then, and properly extol the virtues of the zin/grilling combination!