Easy korean bibimbap for home cooks

The classic Korean dish known as bibimbap starts with a large serving of rice placed in the center of a hot bowl. The rice is surrounded with hot and cold seasoned vegetables, small amounts of meat and sauce and topped with an egg, and the entire thing is eventually stirred together by eager diners. It’s a delicious dish and eminently versatile, as Martha Rose Shulman demonstrates in the latest Recipes for Health: Bibimbap can also provide a palette for leftovers. The Korean cookbook author Hi Soo Shin Hepinstall writes, in “Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen,” of how her family enjoyed the dish for days after family celebrations, when there would be many delectable leftovers on hand. The concept of bibimbap is perfect for Recipes for Health. I’ve broken with tradition and have chosen to make this week’s recipes with brown rice and other grains. You can use the recipes as templates and choose whatever vegetables you like. The recipes call for 2 to 3 ounces of protein per serving, as this dish is really about the grains and vegetables. But if you are feeding hungry teenage boys, as I am, you may want to increase those quantities.