A Fierce And Unrelenting Joy

serves 5, or 2 with a lot of leftovers that reheat well

2 cups of your preferred rice -- recent innovation: part sushi rice, part purple rice

Start rice cooker first. If you cook rice on the stovetop you are really impressive to me and I can't help you.

Half a cabbage, sliced up, plus Shaoxing cooking wine or rice vinegar, plus soy sauce

Cherry tomatoes, halved lengthwise

a nice cucumber, sliced, smashed, quick pickled in rice vinegar

Starting early on these lets the cucumber pickle longer. I like a fettuccine-esque width of cabbage slice. Boyfriend did spiral cucumbers... awe-inspiring. If you are two people, parallel process by starting the beef and then addressing the vegetable situation.

2 lb ground beef

2 large garlic cloves, minced OR 2 spoonfuls jarred garlic

2-3 inch piece fresh ginger, minced (very fine spears are nice) OR 2 spoonfuls ginger paste

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy sauce (consider some dark soy sauce in here)

6 Tablespoons or 3/8ths cup rice vinegar

2 Tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2 heaping spoonfuls gochujang

Mince if mincing. Mise en place the dries (garlic, ginger, brown sugar, gochujang) in one little bowl and the wets (soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil) in another little bowl. I know sugar is a wet but if it sits it precipitates back out.

Cook beef til browned, ~10 minutes. Dump in wets and dries, stir. Let cook down with intermittent stirring for however long you feel like. ~10-15 minutes?

Evict beef from pan into serving bowl. Fill pan with the sliced cabbage. Spoon generous quantity of beef juice back over cabbage. Drizzle with cooking wine or vinegar and soy sauce. Pop lid on pan and let cabbage cook til desired crunch-soft ratio.