Experimental food corner: Maple ginger pears.

[rivka]

It's been a while since I've had anything from the experimental food corner that was worth writing home about. But this time? Wow. I made a really simple winter dessert that was ZOMG YUMMY.

I peeled and halved three large Bosc pears, and Michael scooped the cores out with a spoon. I arranged them cut side down in a square glass dish. Alex used a rolling pin to beat the heck out of a couple of handfuls of gingersnap cookies sealed in a ziploc bag. We sprinkled the gingersnap crumbs generously over the pears, poured some maple syrup (about 3oz) over the top, and added a dot of butter (about a teaspoon) to the top of each pear. I baked it for about half an hour at 375, covered with foil for the first 20 minutes and then uncovered. We ate them hot, and they were delicious. Soft, juicy pears, dripping with gingery syrupy goodness. The larger pieces of gingersnap didn't quite melt, so they added a bit of solid crunch.

The other special dish we made tonight was bee-bim bop. Alex has a wonderful children's book in which a little girl helps her mother make the Korean dish bee-bim bop. It has a recipe in the back, and after the hundredth reading we decided to try making it. It's SO GOOD. And the excitement of trying a recipe from a favorite book led Alex to actually consume beef, willingly, for I think the first time in her life.

It's kind of a fiddly recipe, but not very difficult to make. I cut sirloin steak into very, very thin slices against the grain, and marinated it in soy sauce, sugar, vegetable oil, sesame oil, toasted sesame seeds, garlic, and pepper. (There's supposed to be scallions in there too, but we're not scallion fans.)



I cooked up tiny wafer-thin flat omelet/pancake thingies, about one egg's worth at a time, in a small nonstick skillet. Then I stacked them, rolled them up together, and sliced them thinly into little curls of egg and put them in a bowl. I sliced carrots thinly and cooked them for a couple of minutes in the wok, boiled mung bean sprouts for a couple of minutes in a separate pot of water, and cooked a big heap of spinach quickly in the wok for just long enough to reduce its size. I made some rice. All of these things were arranged nicely on the table to be bee-bim bop fixins.



Then I stir-fried the meat in its marinade, quickly, at high temperature. The marinade and meat juices together made a lovely sauce.



Everyone put together their own bowl at the table: rice, meat and sauce, veggies of their choice, egg on top. We should have had some Korean red pepper paste (ko-chee chang, I think) to go with it, but our local Asian market apparently looks down on Korean food and we didn't have time to go further afield. Once your food is piled up, according to Alex's book, you "Mix it! Mix like crazy!"

It comes out looking something like this:



Really delicious.

Comments

[geminigirl]

I actually made an apple-berry crisp for Rosh Hashanah using ginger snaps and oatmeal in the topping and it was delicious. I'm anxious to try it again with peaches, but pears sound really tasty.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. I happen to have Bosc pears (my favorite kind!), ginger snaps and maple syrup. What to do, what to do...?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

How was it? ;-)

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

:):)
I'll let you know when we've eaten it. It's in the oven at the moment :). But I think you already know!

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Gawd.

Next time I'm adding pecans, but this was *amazing*. Tim sends major kudos!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Both dishes sound delicious. Those maple ginger pears sound dead easy and amazing. Thanks!

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I've read that Bi Bim Bap book at the library! (I read the children's books after I check them in, before I shelve them, if time allows.) I thought it was cute, and copied down the recipe - but haven't tried it yet.

[ookpik.livejournal.com]

Yum! Bibim bap (the spelling I usually see) is one of my favorite things; there was a restaurant in Berkeley where I used to get it regularly for lunch.

If you're in a town with a Korean grocery, check out some of the pickled bits of vegetables. Bibim bap in the restaurant tends to have interesting assortments (oh, and kimchi, though that's probably too much for Alex).

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I love babimbop. I love to add a few bits of baby veggies from my garden. It's perfect because you don't need a whole lot and it is so fun to see them with all the other toppings. My local Korean place adds fresh leaf lettuce, uncooked, so I do that too, sometimes. Good stuff. Mmmmmm. I may have to make this for supper tomorrow.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, baby vegetables would be too ridiculously cute! Too bad it isn't spring...

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Oh my. Almost 10 PM, and now I am starving. I shall have to try both of those.

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

And I almost got pears at the grocery store today, too! Hannah would love that.

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

Now I have a craving for Mongolian barbecue...darnit.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Yum!

I've made a variant on your pear dessert using Amaretto and balsamic vinegar (no, really!) mixed 50-50, with those little Amaretti cookies, crumbled, in place of gingersnaps. Also delicious (though perhaps not kid-friendly), but I think yours sounds even nicer!

[ckd]

I should not have tried to catch up on LJ before breakfast. Now I'm starving! Those both sound wonderful.

Maybe I'll hike up to Koreana for lunch today. It's a bit farther than I'd usually go, but their food's mighty tasty.

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

Both look and sound yummy!!! Would you mind posting the entire recipe? It sounds like something my family would like (on one of those days when I want to cook).

[selki.livejournal.com]

I love bibim bap! There's a restaurant the next town over from me that does it really well.