Bibim Guksu

Cold noodles in a thick sauce with no broth at all, dressed only when everything else is on the table.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains fish sauce. Everything else in it is vegetarian, so it becomes a vegetarian dish if you use vegetarian fish sauce — which is sold, including by Thai brands.

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 3 tablespoons gochujang
• 1 tablespoon gochugaru
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

For the bowls

• 250 g somyeon, thin wheat noodles
• 100 g kimchi, as on its own page, chopped
• half a cucumber, in matchsticks
• 1 egg, boiled 9 minutes and halved
• a handful of lettuce, shredded

Method

1. THERE IS NO BROTH IN THIS AT ALL, and that is what makes it a different dish from the naengmyeon on this site rather than a variation on it. There the broth is half-frozen and ladled over; here a thick sauce is tossed through the noodles until every strand is coated and nothing pools in the bottom of the bowl. If liquid collects, the sauce was too thin.
2. SO THE SAUCE IS MADE THICK AND IS NOT LET DOWN WITH WATER. It should drop heavily off a spoon. A splash of the kimchi brine is the only thing that goes in if it needs loosening, and that adds flavour rather than diluting it.
3. THE NOODLES ARE RINSED IN COLD WATER UNTIL THEY ARE GENUINELY COLD, rubbed between the hands through two or three changes, and then SHAKEN DRY hard. Somyeon cook in three minutes and carry a lot of surface starch; left on, it makes the sauce slide off, and water left clinging thins it.
4. AND THEY ARE DRESSED AT THE LAST SECOND. Noodles sitting in this sauce soften and swell within five minutes and the whole thing turns claggy. Bowls out, toppings cut, then toss.
5. THE SAUCE IS BETTER MADE AN HOUR AHEAD, which is the opposite instruction and is about the sauce rather than the dish -- the gochugaru needs time to soften into it or it stays gritty.
6. The sauce ingredients stirred together until smooth and LEFT 1 HOUR if there is time.
7. The egg boiled 9 minutes, cooled and halved.
8. Cucumber and lettuce cut, kimchi chopped, and everything arranged ready.
9. Noodles boiled 3 MINUTES only, in plenty of water, until just tender.
10. Drained and plunged into cold water, rubbed between the hands, and RINSED through 2 or 3 changes until completely cold.
11. SHAKEN DRY hard in a colander, several times.
12. Tipped into a bowl with the sauce and TOSSED until every strand is coated and no liquid sits at the bottom.
13. Loosened with a spoonful of kimchi brine only if it needs it.
14. Divided between two bowls, the kimchi, cucumber, lettuce and egg arranged on top.
15. Eaten at once, mixed again by the person eating it.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes