Dolsot Bibimbap

 (Bee-Bin-Bhap)

The crisp crust on Korean dolsot bibimbap makes it into most food trucks across London. Unfortunately, making bibimbap requires special stone bowls, a lot of sautéing, and a lot of knife work. Here slave makes a more approachable, family-style bibimbap by substituting one enameled cast-iron Dutch oven for a set of stone bowls, using just three easily prepared sautéed vegetable toppings instead of the usual six or more vegetables into make-ahead options. 

 

It is also a very hot and spicy dish, here is offered also a non- firey version for tummies that can no longer take that heat. Sometimes you don't want to turn your butt into a flamethrower!

Rice

1 cup white rice

½ cup chicken broth (low sodium)

½ cup water

¾ teaspoon salt

Vegetables:

Sauce:

½ cup water

3 scallions, minced

3 tablespoons soy sauce (low sodium)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Vegetables:

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1 cup shredded carrots

8 ounces mushrooms stemmed, caps sliced thin

1 box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed out -- squeeze to drain

Bibimbap

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons

vegetable oil

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

4 large eggs

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

For a quick dinner, prepare the sauces, and vegetables a day ahead (warm the vegetables to room temperature in the microwave before adding them to the rice).
The Korean chile paste gochujang is sold in Asian markets and some supermarkets. If you can’t find it, an equal amount of Sriracha can be substituted. But because Sriracha is more watery than gochujang, omit the water from the chile sauce and stir just 1 tablespoon of sauce into the rice in step 9. For a true bibimbap experience, bring the pot to the table before stirring the vegetables into the rice in step 9.

Directions:

FOR THE CHILE SAUCE: Whisk gochujang, water, oil, and sugar together in small bowl. Cover and set aside.
For the teriyaki: (make ahead of time and store covered in the refrigerator)
Ingredients:

1/3 cup pineapple juice (from a can of pineapple)

1/3 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce

3 Tbs water

3 Tbs honey (or brown sugar)

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. cornstarch
Bring to a boil and stir well to make sure honey dissolves into the sauce. Turn heat down to medium and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce is thick and coats a spoon nicely. Taste and season if needed. Make sure to watch the sauce since it can burn quickly.

For the meal:

THE RICE: Bring rice, water, and salt to boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook for 7 minutes. Remove rice from heat and let sit, covered, until tender, about 15 minutes.

FOR THE VEGETABLES: While rice cooks, stir together water, scallions, soy sauce, garlic, and sugar. (You will be adding this sauce in each step of cooking, so mix it in a pourable cup)

Heat 1 Tbs oil in a Dutch oven over high heat until shimmering. 

 
Add carrots and stir until coated. Add 1/3 cup scallion mixture and cook, stirring frequently, until carrots are slightly softened and moisture has evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer carrots to a small bowl.

Heat 1 Tbs oil in a now-empty pot until shimmering. Add mushrooms and stir until coated with oil. Add 1/3 cup scallion mixture and cook, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are tender and moisture has evaporated, 3 to 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer mushrooms to a second small bowl.


Heat remaining 1 Tbs oil in a now-empty pot until shimmering. Squeeze and add spinach and remaining 1/3 cup scallion mixture and stir to coat the spinach. Cook, stirring frequently until spinach is completely wilted but still bright green, 4 - 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer spinach to a third small bowl. Discard any remaining liquid and wipe out pot with a paper towel.

FOR THE BIBIMBAP: Heat 2 Tbs vegetable oil and sesame oil in now-empty pot over high heat until shimmering. Carefully add cooked rice and gently press into even layer. Cook, without stirring, until rice begins to form a crust on the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer carrots, spinach, and mushrooms to the pot and arrange in piles that cover the surface of rice. Reduce heat to low.

While crust forms, heat 2 tsp vegetable oil in 10-inch nonstick skillet over low heat for 5 minutes. Crack eggs into a small bowl. Pour eggs into skillet; cover and cook (about 2 minutes for runny yolks, 2½ minutes for soft but set yolks, and 3 minutes for firmly set yolks). Using a slotted spoon Slide each egg onto vegetables in the pot.

Drizzle 2 Tbs of your chosen sauce (Hot or teriyaki)over eggs. Without disturbing crust, use a wooden spoon to stir rice, vegetables, and eggs until combined.


Just before serving, Again with the slotted spoon or spatula, scrape large pieces of crust from bottom of pot and stir into rice. Serve in individual bowls, with extra sauce on the side.

 For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xT6rTmsn1Y

What a surprise and honor to serve this to my Master.

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White  

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

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Alexander the Great and Hephaestion

Just about every child in school has heard about Alexander the Great, the amazing king who conquered the known world in ancient times. Maybe only military or Greek scholars might be able to recall the various battles or even countries that bowed their knee to Alexander. Still, he is well known. It says much about our society that only a few know of Hephaestion. In reality, the driving force of this Macedonian juggernaut was a gay male couple! 

Even in the 21st century, we have closed-minded Professors trying to “straight-wash” history. Some writers still refuse to acknowledge any contributions that LGBT people provided. Perhaps that is why LGBT youth are still suffering the highest rate of suicides. 

This is one reason I try to let you in on these secrets of history. Our example today is the dynamic couple of Alexander and Hephaestion. 

It is argued that modern sexual categories like homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual were alien to Alexander's world. No equivalent terms existed at the time. In ancient Greece, acting upon a desire for another man or woman simply did not lock any man or woman into a sexual camp. 

Even if these familiar terms did not exist yet, the relationships DID!

In the late second century, writer Athenaeus reports that because of the young Alexander had no interest in sex, his parents (Olympias and Philip) hired a beautiful prostitute named Kallixena to introduce him to sex, it was reported they did not get their money's worth.....

Alexander's first long-term, intimate relationship was with a Macedonian officer named Hephaestion. Born in the same year (356) as Alexander, Hephaestion also was educated with him by their tutor, Aristotle, who described the friendship of the two as "one soul abiding in two bodies".  

By the time Alexander reached Asia Minor (modern Turkey) in 334 at the beginning of his conquest of Persia, Hephaestion and Alexander already were close. Taller than Alexander and said to be handsome, and through Alexander's promotions, Hephaestion advanced to the highest positions of command in the empire, despite what many considered to be a quarrelsome nature.

Time after time, when Alexander needed to divide his forces he entrusted half to Hephaestion, knowing that in him he had a man of unquestionable loyalty who understood and sympathized with his aims and, above all, who got the job done. 

When Alexander and Hephaestion went together to visit the captured Persian royal family after the battle of Issus the queen knelt to Hephaestion to plead for their lives, having mistaken him for Alexander because he was taller. When she realized her mistake she was acutely embarrassed, but Alexander pardoned her, saying "You were not mistaken; this man too is Alexander."

Their love for each other was no secret, borne out by their own words.

Hephaestion, when replying to a letter to Alexander's mother, said: "you know that Alexander means more to us than anything".

Hephaestion played a full part in Alexander's regular consultations with senior officers, but he was the one to whom Alexander would also talk in private, sharing his thoughts, hopes, and plans. Hephaestion was the sharer of all his secrets and Plutarch describes an occasion when Alexander had a controversial change to impose and implies that Hephaestion was the one with whom Alexander discussed it and who arranged for the change to be implemented.

Historian Lucian, writing in his book On Slips of the Tongue, describes an occasion when Hephaestion's conversation one morning implied that he had been in Alexander's tent all night, and Plutarch describes the intimacy between them when he tells how Hephaestion was in the habit of reading Alexander's letters with him, and of a time when he showed that the contents of a letter were to be kept secret by touching his ring to Hephaestion's lips.

One contemporary source commented that Alexander was never defeated, except by Hephaestion's thighs. 

After Alexander had taken a detour to subdue a hostile tribe, in which he was seriously injured, Hephaestion took command of the greater part of the army as they traveled down the Indus to the sea. At the coast, he organized the construction of a fortress and a harbor for the fleet at Pattala.

Hephaestion crossed the Gedrosian desert with Alexander, sharing the torments of that journey and when the army was safely back in Susa, he was decorated for bravery.

By the time they returned to Persia, Hephaestion was officially, by title, Alexander's second-in-command, as he had long been in practice. "It is not surprising that Alexander was as closely attached to Hephaestion as Achilles was to Patroclus", and "At the time of his death Hephaestion held the highest single command, that of the Companion Cavalry; and had been repeatedly second in command to Alexander in the hierarchy of the Asian court, holding the title of Chiliarch. Thus Alexander honored Hephaestion both as the closest of his friends and the most distinguished of his Field Marshals." 

One historian describes the occasion when Alexander and Hephaestion publicly identified themselves with the Homeric figures of Achilles and Patroclus. At the onset of the campaign in Asia, Alexander led a contingent of the army to visit Troy, scene of the events in his beloved Iliad. He laid a wreath on the tomb of Achilles and Hephaestion laid a wreath on the tomb of Patroclus and they ran a race, naked, to honor their dead heroes. 

"It was a remarkable tribute, uniquely paid. Already the two were intimate, Patroclus and Achilles, even to those around them; the comparison would remain to the end of their days and is proof of their life as lovers, for by Alexander's time, Achilles and Patroclus were agreed to have enjoyed a sexual relationship."

In spring 324 BC Hephaestion left Susa and accompanied Alexander and the rest of the army as they traveled towards Ecbatana. They arrived in the autumn and it was there, during games and festivals, that Hephaestion fell ill with a fever. Arrian says that the fever had run for seven days, after which time he was sufficiently recovered for his doctor, and Alexander himself, to feel it was safe to leave him, and for Hephaestion to feel hungry. His meal, however, seems to have caused a relapse. Precisely why this should have happened is not known. This sudden crisis in a young, convalescent man is hard to account for.  Alexander had to be summoned from the games to Hephaestion. He did not arrive in time; by the time he got there, Hephaestion was dead.

No other circumstance shows better the nature and length of their relationship than Alexander's overwhelming grief at Hephaestion's death. As Andrew Chugg says, "it is surely incredible that Alexander's reaction to Hephaestion's death could indicate anything other than the closest relationship imaginable".

The many and varied ways, both spontaneous and planned, by which Alexander poured out his grief have been detailed. Alexander "flung himself on the body of his Hephaestion and lay there nearly all day long in tears, and refused to be parted from him until he was dragged away by force by his Companions". 

Hephaestion's death is dealt with at greater length by the ancient sources than any of the events of his life, because of its profound effect upon Alexander. Plutarch says that "Alexander's grief was uncontrollable" and adds that he ordered many signs of mourning, notably that the manes and tails of all horses should be shorn and the banning of flutes and every other kind of music.

Alexander cut his hair short in mourning, this last a poignant reminder of Achilles' last gift to Patroclus on his funeral pyre: "he laid the lock of hair in the hands of his beloved companion and the whole company was moved to tears".

"for two whole days after Hephaestion's death, Alexander tasted no food and paid no attention in any way to his bodily needs but lay on his bed now crying lamentably, now in the silence of grief". Alexander ordered a period of mourning throughout the empire. Hephaestion was given a magnificent funeral. Its cost is difficult to give a modern equivalent for. So even at the most conservative estimate, Hephaestion's funeral may have cost £1,500,000,000. 

The ancient Greeks did not slot people into sexual categories. To understand Alexander's sexuality, and his identity, one must examine his relationship over time. When we examine what evidence we have, we must turn to our hearts for true knowledge.