(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 drainBibimbap
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
========================
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.
