Cherry Tomato

Simple Korean Cooking
Refreshing, Sweet and Spicy Pasta Salad
“Bibim Guksu”
Now that it’s May, spring has really
come. In this season, people often
feel drowsy and weary. Why not try
the Korean style spicy pasta salad - bibim guksu
- and chase away the fatigue?
Bibim guksu is made by boiling thin noodles
made of flour or rice powder, then washing them
in cold water, and mixing them with a variety of
vegetables and gochujang sauce. The dish looks
similar to naengmyeon (cold noodles) but if
naengmyeon uses starch noodles with spicy
sauce and just a few vegetables, bibim guksu
contains many kinds of vegetables - cucumbers,
onions, carrots, and more, so it not only tastes
good but fills you with the energy of vitamins!
To make the noodles chewy, follow these
steps: 1. Put the noodles in the water after it
starts boiling. 2. When the water with noodles
reaches the boiling point, add a cup of cold water.
3. Once the bubbles appear for the third time,
sieve the noodles. 4. Put them in a bowl of ice
water, rinse well and filter again.
The sauce made of vinegar (or lemon juice),
sugar (or oligosaccharides), gochujang, and
sesame oil, will make your mouth water. And
the harmony of chewy noodles with crispy vegetables
will double the joy of eating!
If you are a fan of kimchi, you can make the
sauce by mixing together 200g of chopped yeolmu
kimchi or baechu kimchi, 1/2tbsp of sugar,
and sesame oil. The dish made with this sauce
and washed noodles is called “kimchi bibim guksu.”
It is easy to make and the taste is great!
How about waking up your tired body with
the spicy and fresh bibim guksu that Agrafood
introduces here?
Bibim Guksu:
Sauce: 1 gochujang, 1/2 spoon
vinegar (or lemon juice), 1/2 spoon
sugar, 1/2 spoon sesame oil, a dash
of sesame
Ingredients: dried thin noodles
(somyeon), 70g of onions, 70g of
carrots, 70g of cucumbers, 50g of
paprika pepper, 1 egg
1. Put the noodles in boiling water
and stir well. As soon as the water
starts boiling again, add a cup of
cold water. When the water reaches
its boiling point for the third
time, wait for one minute and sieve
the noodles. Wash the cooked
noodles in ice water and filter the
water out.
2. Put an egg and 1/2 a spoon of
salt in a pot and pour water in so
that the egg sinks. Boil for ten
minutes and put the egg in ice water.
It will make the egg easy to
peel. Cut the boiled egg in half.
3. Mix the gochujang, vinegar, and
sugar together.
4. Cut all the vegetables 5cm long
and thin (like noodles but a little
thicker). Put the onion in cold water
for ten minutes to reduce its
spicy taste and smell.
5. Mix the noodles, vegetables, and
sauce. Be careful not to mix too
hard, as it will spoil the taste. Mix
the ingredients with chopsticks or
gently with a hand covered in a
vinyl glove.
6. Add sesame oil and toss.
7. Put the noodles on two plates,
sprinkle some sesame, and put
half an egg on top of each dish.
36 Korea AgraFood Issue188 May. 2011 37