Kongnamul Bap (Soybean Sprout Rice)

There's nothing particularly "special" about Kongnamul Bap.  But when I made it for my husband the other day and asked him if it was good he said, "No. It's delicious!"  WOW.

I first ate Kongnamul Bap at a playdate with several moms that I had met at a Korean mommy & me school.  It was new to me and they were so surprised.  "L" even ate 3 bowls of it that day because he liked it so much and they laughed.  I guess because it's such a common and easy to prepare meal in Korea they were surprised that we had never enjoyed it before.

So a few days ago, my sister reminded me of it when she emailed me about a Korean food website called Maangchi where she found a recipe for Kongnamul Bap.  I checked out Maangchi's recipe and saw that she makes it on the stove top.  But I remember the hostess mom telling me she made it directly in the rice cooker.  So after researching other recipes online, I attempted my own version.   


Instructions (4 servings):

before cooking

1. Rinse 3 cups of rice.  Place rice into the rice cooker and add correct amount of water (according to the rice cooker).
2. Directly on top of the uncooked rice add washed and trimmed soybean sprouts, thinly sliced zucchini, and ground pork (pre-sauteed with salt and drained of fat).
3. Press the "cook" button and let the rice cooker do all the work.
4. When the rice cooker is done, stir the rice and ingredients together.
5. Serve with prepared sauce on the side and each person can add as much as they want.

Tip: After it's done cooking, don't keep it in the rice cooker on the "warm" setting like regular rice because the bean sprouts will dry out (i learned that the second time I made it).

Sauce:
1/4 c. soy sauce
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
1 T. sesame oil
thinly sliced scallions
chili pepper flakes (depending on how spicy you want it)

This recipe can be modified to incorporate different vegetables like julienned carrots or mushrooms and made with beef or chicken instead of pork.