When Nick chose his next Cooking Class dish, no one had heard of it (and don’t ask me to say it, because I’m sure my Australian accent does it no justice, I’ve already spelt it wrong a couple of times).

It was described to me as a Korean stir-fry without the actual stir-fry. More of a combination of flavoured vegetables and some beef all cooked separately, then laid onto each person’s bowl of rice, with a fried egg with soft yolk placed on top. Break the yolk and eat different sections, or mix and match.

It took a bit longer to make then we expected. We had to cook each part separately in the wok, although it was worth it, and the hot rice helped heat up anything that had cooled slightly. Nick was happy with it too, saying it was quite similar to what he had previously tried (even though he’s only tried it once or twice).

Bi Bim Bap
(Recipe adapted from Maangchi)
For 4- 6 servings

1 tablespoon butter
2 cups rice
3 cups boiling water
salt
a package of bean sprouts
a bunch of spinach, sliced in long strips
2 zucchinis, peeled and cut into long thin slices
8 Shiitake mushrooms (if they are dried, you need to soak them for 2 hours), sliced thinly
200 grams of ground beef (about half a pound), or diced beef
3 carrots, peeled and cut into long thin slices
4-6 eggs
soy sauce
6 cloves garlic
sugar
sesame seeds, sesame oil, and vegetable oil
A platter for vegetables

Green onion sauce
4 green onions
½ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoons sesame seeds
2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Rinse bean sprouts 3 times and put them in a pot with a cup of water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and cook for 20 minutes. Half way through add 1 clove of minced garlic, sesame oil and a pinch of salt. Drain and place on platter.

Heat a medium saucepan on medium/high heat. Add butter and then stir in rice to coat. Add a few pinches of salt, stir, then add boiling water and stir. Once water has come back to the boil, turn down to as low as possible, place the lid on and cook for 15-20 minutes.

Put spinach in a pot of boiling water and stir it for a minute. Then rinse it in cold water a few times and squeeze it lightly. Mix it with a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 clove of minced garlic and sesame oil. Put it on the platter.

Sprinkle zucchinis with a pinch of salt and mix together. A few minutes later, sauté zucchini in a wok over high heat. When it’s cooked, it will look a little translucent. Put it on the platter.

Sauté shitake mushrooms with 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in wok. Add 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar and stir it for 2 minutes. Add some sesame oil, and put it on the platter.

Add some oil to the wok and cook ground beef. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, ½ tablespoon of sugar, a little grounded black pepper, and sesame oil. Place on platter

Sauté carrots it for 30 seconds and put it on the platter.

Add a little butter to a pan and cook eggs with sunny side up. (Crack into pan and cook until egg white cooked and yolk still runny).

For the sauce, add all ingredients together and mix.

Spoon rice into bowls and attractively display all your vegetables and meat. Place the sunny side up egg on the centre. Serve it with green onion sauce, sesame oil and hot pepper paste. Lastly, mix it up and eat!

You may be wondering what has happened to our family cooking classes… Well they have continued, even with the busy process of moving. Although there was an added delay due to possibly deleted photos – and I didn’t want to post without photos 😛 . Yay – photos found… now I’ll continue…

Our third family cooking class was a lovely stuffed capsicum dish, with a rice, lamb, onion, tomato and spice stuffing in capsicums which had been boiled in salted water (a step I had never done before) then cooked on the stove (another step I hadn’t done – I’ve always cooked them in the oven) in diced tomatoes and lemon juice.

It may have taken a bit longer than we had expected, as it often takes a while to figure out what you’re meant to be doing from the recipe and trying to make sure everyone gets a go. They are relatively easy though, even though I mentioned it took a while, especially if you have made the rice or filling beforehand. I’m sure for those who do not want or are unable to get lamb mince, that you could substitute it with beef mince or a vegetable filling of mushrooms, eggplant etc and it would still taste fantastic!

Nonetheless, once you’ve got these capsicums in and cooking, there is plenty of time to make naan bread and/or clean up from the preparation.

Stuffed Capsicums
Recipe adapted from rice and risotto (sorry I’m not sure of the author as this isn’t from one of my books)

Serves: 6

6 capsicums
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 spring onions, finely chopped
150g minced lamb
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup yellow split peas
1/2 – 1 cup cooked long grain rice
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
1 teaspoon cinnamon
juice of two lemons
2-4 tablespoons tomato puree
400g (one or two cans) chopped tomatoes
tablespoon butter
salt and ground pepper
natural yoghurt and naan bread, to serve

Cut the tops off the capsicums, remove seeds and core. If the capsicums are going to fall over, trim a little off the bottom, so they stand. Cook in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, then drain, rinse under cold water and set aside.

Place the split peas in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until soft. Drain.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook onion and spring onions until golden brown. Add the garlic and lamb and cook over medium heat until well browned. Stir in split peas, cooked rice, herbs, cinnamon, juice of lemon and tomato puree into the meat mixture. Stir to combine, then stuff into the capsicums. Place capsicum lids on top.

Place chopped tomatoes, butter and juice of one lemon into a large saucepan. Place capsicums on top of tomato mix with stems upwards. Bring to boil, cover with lid and cook on low/medium for 40-45minutes until peppers are tender.

Serve with the tomato mixture, yoghurt and naan bread.