Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups minced scallions, both green and white parts (from a 4-ounce bundle)
  • 2 tablespoons minced or finely grated fresh ginger
  • Neutral oil (such as grapeseed, safflower, or sunflower)
  • 1/4 cup sherry or rice wine vinegar
  • Fine sea salt
  • About 1 heaped cup julienned or coarsely grated carrots (from about 8 ounces fresh)
  • 8 ounces small (Persian-style, about 2) cucumbers, thinly sliced
  • 3 cups cooked, cooled rice (my favorite here is short-grain brown or white)
  • 4 eggs
  • Soy sauce or tamari (to serve)
  • Toasted sesame oil (to serve)
  • Sriracha, gochujang or another hot sauce of your choice (to serve)

Instructions

I make this with cucumbers and carrots because it’s what I have around most often, but I think this could be good with many other vegetables, even leftovers, so go ahead, clean out your fridge before it gets terrible. If you have extra time, I like to toss the carrots with 2 tablespoons each rice vinegar and water, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt to coat the strands. They begin to marinate/gently pickle while you do everything else. But the dressing is sufficient to flavor them if you’re in more of a rush. While this is best with leftover rice, cold from the fridge, I made some fresh and cooled it to almost room temperature and it was, in fact, almost perfect (and it crisps faster). I really like the starchiness of short-grain white and brown rice here; I did not test this with long-grain rice but have crisped longer-grain rice in other recipes with success. This recipe presumes 3/4 cup cooked rice per person; adjust it to your preferred serving size, if this is not it.

This recipe has many things in common with dolsot bibimbap, which is served in a sizzling stone bowl that crisps the rice, and is often with a raw egg (which cooks in the hot rice) or meat, and fresh and pickled vegetables — although this is in no way intended as what would be a very lazy imitation. But if you love the flavors of bimbimbap, you will definitely like what’s happening in this fridge-scavenged hybrid recipe.

Crisp your egg

If there isn’t enough oil left in the pan (you want a thin layer), add another splash and heat this on high heat. Add eggs one at a time and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cook until brown, lacy, and crisp underneath, and the whites are opaque, bubbly and dramatic and the edges are brown. You can spoon some oil from the pan over the egg whites to help them cook faster. Place one egg on each bowl of rice.

Assemble bowls

Arrange some cucumbers and carrots to each bowl. Spoon 2 tablespoons vinaigrette onto each bowls. Drizzle each egg with a half-teaspoon of tamari and toasted sesame oil, letting it roll onto the other ingredients, plus hot sauce to taste. Eat immediately. Repeat frequently.

Do ahead

The dressing will keep for 5 to 6 days in the fridge; the chopped vegetables will keep for 3 to 4.