Beef & Egg Korean Bibimbap

Ingredients

• 400 g beef sirloin or rump steak, very thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 thumb-sized piece ginger, grated
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 200 g beansprouts, briefly blanched
• 200 g spinach, wilted and squeezed
• 2 medium carrots, cut into matchsticks and briefly blanched
• 100 g shiitake mushrooms, sautéed with garlic
• 4 eggs
• 300 g cooked short-grain rice
• 3 tbsp gochujang paste
• 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• Pickled cucumber, to serve
• Fresh coriander, to serve

Method

1. Combine the soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic and ginger in a bowl, add the sliced beef and turn to coat every strip. Leave to marinate for 15 minutes while you prep the rest — any longer in this much soy and the meat starts to cure rather than marinate.
2. Bring a pan of well-salted water to the boil — it should taste like the sea, and you'll use it for all three vegetables in turn. Drop the spinach in for 20 seconds, lift out, refresh under cold water, then squeeze hard until barely damp and dress with a pinch of salt and a drop of sesame oil. Blanch the carrot matchsticks for 1 minute until they bend without snapping, refresh, and season. Drop the beansprouts in for 30 seconds — they should still squeak between your teeth — refresh and season. Pile each separately.
3. Heat a splash of sesame oil in a small frying pan over medium heat and add the shiitake with the minced garlic. Cook the garlic just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more, or it turns bitter and takes the mushrooms with it. Sauté for 3–4 minutes until the mushrooms are glossy and tender, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
4. Heat the vegetable oil in a stainless or cast-iron pan over very high heat until it shimmers and the surface looks alive. Lift the beef out of the marinade (keep the marinade in the bowl) and lay the strips in a single layer — work in two batches if your pan is on the smaller side. Crowd the pan and the meat steams in its own liquid instead of caramelising at the edges. Sear for 2–3 minutes per batch, tossing once, until the edges are deeply caramelised.
5. With the beef out of the pan, pour the reserved marinade into the hot pan and let it bubble and reduce for 30–45 seconds, scraping up the stuck-on bits, until it turns glossy and syrupy. Return the beef, toss to coat, and pull off the heat — you've turned the marinade into a pan sauce that clings rather than a paste that smears.
6. Meanwhile, fry the eggs sunny-side up in a lightly oiled pan over medium heat for about 2 minutes, until the whites are set and crisp at the lacy edges and the yolks still wobble bright orange when you nudge the pan.
7. Taste a strand of beef and a pinch of each vegetable pile — adjust salt now, not at the table. Most of the salt comes from the soy, but each vegetable pile needs its own seasoning to hold its own against the gochujang.
8. Divide the hot rice between four warm bowls. Arrange the spinach, carrots, beansprouts, mushrooms and glossy beef in distinct wedges on top, crown each bowl with a fried egg, add a generous spoonful of gochujang beside the yolk, scatter with toasted sesame seeds, and set the kimchi and extra gochujang on the table. Stir everything together vigorously just before the first bite to break the yolk through the rice.