Kimchi Fried Rice

Fried rice. It sounds unhealthy. And yet unlike other fried foods which evoke some seedy diner, fried rice is quick and wholesome. It's not particularly fried.

One of the nice things about fried rice is that it's a great use for leftover rice, rice that's had a chance to sit is an even better ingredient. While you can often just throw veggies that were in your fridge the below recipe relies on a hit of kimchi for a hit of extra flavour.

Kimchi Fried Rice

1 cup rice
1 head broccoli or cauliflower
1 block tofu
1 small bell pepper, diced
2 eggs

1.5 cups wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
pepper
4 cloves garlic
2 cups kimchi
Drizzle of sriracha

Put the rice on in the rice cooker or stove (despite what I said above about using leftover rice, I've given the amount for the dry rice). As the rice is on, cook the broccoli/cauliflower and pepper on low heat, stirring occasionally. Add the tofu a little afterwards.

During this time, you can make the sauce (just whisk the wine, soy sauce, pressed garlic and pepper together). Once the rice is done, add a little oil to another pan and sautee the rice in it on medium-high. After a minute or so, create a little "pocket" in the middle of the rice and crack the eggs into it. Then stir the eggs and rice together.

Next, add the tofu/veggies and the sauce to the rice and stir together. Finally, add the kimchi and cook together until the kimchi's warmed up.

Drizzle sriracha over it and serve.

Serves 5

The kimchi is Daebak brand Kimchi, which is vegan and - I assume - fair trade.

The Story Continues... Kimchi Tofu Soup

My last post here was a bit of a cliffhanger because I didn't mention what dish I used the kimchi in (I realize I am using a very expansive definition of the word "cliffhanger"). Well, now all will be revealed (unless you read the title of this post)! As I used Mark Bittman's recipe for kimchi, I thought I'd troll through the index to find recipes that used kimchi.

Kimchi Tofu Soup

dark sesame oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup kimchi

1/2 block tofu, cubed (or crumbled if soft tofu)

2 teaspoons chili paste

4 cups water or stock

2 teaspoons rice vinegar

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1/3 cup white rice

Put the sesame oil in a medium saucepan over medium/high heat. Add the onions when it's hot and cook for a miute. Add the kimchi, tofu and chili paste for a few seconds then add the water, vinegar and soy sauce. Bring to a boil. Tone down the heat a bit till it's simmering, then add the rice and cook for 15-20 minutes.

The soup was a nice mix of sour and savoury but, like the kimchi, not spicy enough. I'm going to be making it again this week and I'm going to use soft tofu and more chili paste. Maybe even a couple of my pickled chilies, we'll see if they're still good after I accidentially put them into the freezer.

"Korean mothers doubtless could thank kimchi for preserving the virtue of many of their daughters..."

As we speak there is cabbage rotting in my kitchen. Which is, I guess, my way of saying that I decided to make kimchi with some of my cabbage surplus (almost gone, but still have a bunch more cabbage). Now, let me stipulate that many of the ingredients I wanted were not at my disposal. For example, this awesome looking raddish would've be great to put in the kimchi:

Alas, it was not to be. Still, I was able to – more or less – follow Mark Bittman's recipe.

Cabbage Kimchi

1/2 head cabbage (about 1 lb), seperated into leaves

1/4 cup of salt

1/2 tablespoon hot red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons minced garlic

2 tablespoons sugar
Layer the cabbage leaves in a colander, putting salt in between each layer. Lit sit over a bolw for at least a few hours. When the cabbage is wilted, rinse and dry. Chop the cabbage and add it and all other ingredients to a jar. Let sit.

So my first problem was that my red pepper flakes were weaksauce. I ended up putting in a bunch of cayenne instead but it still wasn't hot enough. Maybe I should've chopped up some chili peppers. So how was the final version after it fermented for a few days. Well it was pretty pungent, a bit sour and complex but not spicy enough. I don't know if I even get to call it kimchi, maybe I should say pickled cabbage instead. My landlady was touring the place so I had to open a bunch of windows to get rid of the smell before the visitors came. Still, I'm glad I have it in a jar, so I can use it for other meals. In fact, I've already used it in another meal... that you'll hear about next time on The Frugal Veggie!

PS– The quote is from a book called Korea: The First War We Lost. I remembered the phrase dimly but couldn't remember where it was from or the exact wording. So I typed in virtue+kimchi+korean+war into Google Books and it popped up the result. What an era we live in!

Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu Korean Restaurant

I have to admit that until I decided to do this blog post I had no idea about the actual name of this resturant. I'd always previously just called it "The Korean Restaurant near Clinton's" or merely "The Korean Restaurant". Its usually pretty busy but they have a platoon of orange clad waiters who try to shuffle things along. Its clean, spartan and pretty afordable.

One really nice change this time I came was that it started of with a bottle of cold water at the table. Usually its pretty hard to get water and its a place where water is pretty great to have. The meal started off with a selection of appetizers, some of which I could identify (kimchi) and others that I couldn't.

The restaurant was a little less busy than usual (though still pretty crowded) so they refilled the mung bean dish a few times before the entrees came. The first time I went – my uncle took me – I had the Bi Bim Bop and, quite frankly, didn't enjoy it much. A few years later, I started coming back for the tofu soon soup.

The soup comes to your table in a big bowl still bubbling from the kitchen. Its filled with a delicious spicy mix of tofu, broccoli and zucchini. This is why the water comes in handy. You can either sip the soup directly, or pour it over purple rice to cool it. The practice is to crack an egg in the soup, which gets cooked by the boiling broth. I tend not to do that, though I think I'll probbaly start doing it again. The rice water is left at the table, I have a silly tradition wher I take a sip of it (though I sometimes forget, including at this meal. Dinner comes out to be $8 a person which is very reasonable in my opinion.

Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu Korean Restaurant
691 Bloor St. West, Toronto, ON