Fried rice is amazing, and I eat it a lot. You can bend it in almost any direction depending on what you throw in. I like ending up with lots of colour, texture, and flavour variations to keep each bite interesting, and I love topping it with a sunny-side up egg. This particular dish goes to Koreatown with the addition of kimchi and gochujang, but you could just as easily substitute Thai curry paste, some hoisin or oyster sauce, Indian curry paste, a bit of diluted miso, and on and on. . . . The point is if you always make extra rice, you’re never more than a few minutes away from a great lunch. Short-grain sushi rice or brown jasmine work well; regular long-grain is also fine; basmati is a bit delicate for this recipe but will work in a pinch. This recipe really needs cold, next-day rice; it does not work so well with hot/fresh rice. – The Depanneur Cookbook. 100 Recipes. 100 Cooks. Stories from Canada’s Unlikeliest Restaurant by Len Senater, Simon & Schuster Canada
Kimchi Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp gochujang Korean red pepper paste
- 2 tablespoons juice from a jar of kimchi
- 1 tbsp mirin or 1/2 tsp sugar
- 2 to 3 slices bacon cut crosswise into 1/4-inch/6 mm strips (optional)
- 2 tbsp oil or butter or a combo omit if using bacon
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
Optional protein (if you didn’t use bacon):
- 1/2 cup (125 mL) coarsely chopped leftover
- Korean beef or pork; ham or Spam popular in Korea!, cut into small cubes;
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) small dried shrimp
- 4 shiitake mushrooms sliced (fresh or rehydrated dried)
- 1 carrot cut into 1-inch/2.5 cm matchsticks
- 1/2 bunch kale chard, or choi, tough stems removed and leaves chopped
- 2 to 3 radishes finely diced
- 1 cup (250 mL) kimchi squeezed, coarsely chopped
- 4 cup (640 g) cold leftover rice
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
Fried Eggs:
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp butter or 1/2 tsp neutral oil plus 1/2 tsp sesame oil
Garnishes:
- 4 tbsp nori strips
- 2 green onions thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp white and/or black sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp gochujang stirred with 1 tsp water (optional)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the gochujang, kimchi juice, and mirin or sugar. Set aside. In a large wok, cast-iron, or other nonstick skillet, cook the bacon (if using) over medium heat until almost crisp and the fat has rendered, about 5 minutes. If not using bacon, in the wok or skillet, heat the oil or oil/butter mix.
- To the bacon fat or oil/butter mix in the skillet, add the onion, garlic, ginger, and any other protein (if using) and cook, stirring frequently, until the onion has become a bit translucent, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Stir in the vegetables, kimchi, and kimchi juice/ gochujang mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until the vegetables have softened and the sauce has evaporated a bit, about 5 minutes. Add the cold rice and break up clumps with a wooden spoon or spatula, tossing to coat. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and toss to coat. Keep cooking, stirring, and tossing until thoroughly mixed and piping hot, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to low and let sit to brown a bit while you fry the eggs sunny-side up in butter or a neutral/sesame oil mix.
- When the eggs are ready, scrape up the rice, hopefully with a few little browned bits, and fill a medium soup bowl with one-quarter of the rice. Place a plate on top of the bowl and then invert to produce a dome of rice. Garnish with a fried egg, a nori strip, and some green onions and sesame seeds. If you like it spicier, drizzle with a bit of the diluted gochujang. Repeat for the remaining portions of rice.
