Kimchi Fried Rice

At least this time around I took a photo of the dish before devouring it. You could call it a two-ingredient recipe, even though it is really three if you count the butter I used to fry the rice with; or more if you include all the vegetables that make up kimchi. If you have made everything beforehand, this recipe comes together in less than 10 minutes.

The rice blend I use is of my own making. It's a 1:1 ratio of Trader Joe's Wild Rice (though, I suppose any wild rice will do) and Trader Joe's Brown Jasmine Rice; both of which apparently have naturally occurring inorganic arsenic in it. Who knew? Apparently, Consumer Reports did a study on the amount of arsenic in rice and it doesn't matter if it is organic rice or conventionally grown rice. I don't eat a lot of rice, but when I do eat it, I usually only cook a cup of rice at a time.

The Foodening Blog - Kimchi Fried Rice

Ingredients

1/2 c cooked rice, per serving
1/2 c homemade kimchi, per serving
1/2 tbsp unsalted butter or olive oil, for frying

Directions

Heat frying pan over medium-high heat until butter melts but does not start to turn brown. Add rice and mash around in pan until the grains have separated from each other. Add kimchi. Stir rice and kimchi around in the pan until evenly distributed. Remove from heat after 5 minutes, or until everything is about the same temperature; if your ingredients came from the refrigerator.

Serve hot.

Kimchi and Bacon Fried Rice

I will have to make this again, as I just ate it for dinner and didn't snap a photo. There are many ways to make fried rice and it starts with a pot of leftover steamed rice from the previous day, or whenever. It's up to you whether or not you want to make this with white or brown rice, short or long grain. The preferred is long grain rice because it's not as sticky.

Ingredients

1 c steamed or baked rice (per serving)
1/2 c homemade kimchi, chopped
1 green onion stalk, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 strips of cooked bacon, diced
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

If you don't have cooked bacon on hand, fry fresh bacon in the large skillet. Once cooked, remove bacon to a cutting board and dice. There should be 1-2 tbsp of bacon lard in the skillet Proceed with the rest of the recipe, omitting the olive oil.

In a large skillet, warm oil over medium-high heat. Add scallions and garlic. Fry until fragrant. Add rice before garlic starts to brown. Add kimchi. Mix it all up until thoroughly combined.

Fry the rice for about 5-10 minutes, until the rice warms up and everything is about the same temperature.

Serve hot.

Kimchi Pork Buns

I have made these twice now with two different dough recipes, both of which can be left to rise overnight, if needed. Typically, dough for steamed bao is ready in about 2 hours, from mix to proof to prepare and steam. At some point I'll write a kitchen note about the many different ways you can make the dough for steamed buns and what the differences, if any, there are.

TheFoodeningBlog - Kimchi Pork Buns

Dough (from Maangchi)

1 c warm water + 2 tsp active dry yeast + 1/2 tsp salt + 1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp olive oil
3 c unbleached all purpose flour

For this dough, dissolve the dry yeast in warm water with or without the sugar and let it bubble into action for 10 mins before stirring in the rest of the ingredients. You should sift the flour and salt together before adding the yeast because direct contact with salt will kill the newly awakened yeast, or so I've read.

Let the dough rise in a warm spot in the kitchen, covered, until double in volume. Then gently knead and roll into a log and divide into 16 equal portions; or 8 portions to make really large buns.

Makes: 16 buns

Filling Ingredients

1/2 c homemade kimchi, finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp homemade vegan oyster sauce (optional)

Mix filling ingredients together. Use 1 heaping tablespoon of filling per bun.

Roll dough portions out into a 4" diameter circle. Put the filling in the center, and bring the edges of the dough circle to the center and pinch at the top. You can pleat the folds at the top if you want to; but it all tastes the same.

Kitchen Notes: Kimchi Pairings

After failing to properly can a batch of kimchi, I have four pint jars of it in my refrigerator. The fifth jar that I took into work seems as unpopular as the fresh longan and fresh litchis that I also brought into work. The kimchi wasn't done fermenting (only a week + 2 days had transpired) and ended up getting cooked a little while canning, plus a lot of its liquid leaked out so I'm not sure how much "life" the jars have in the fridge since then.

Here is the scale. The higher it is on the scale, the more likely it is to be served to others. I'll put comparative recipes in the scale for taste context. As a bachelorette, I'll eat most things that rank at or above a 7. Some of these I've done, some suggestions are imaginary. The kimchi and clam chowder was not imaginary but I think it might taste okay with the Boston version instead.

10 (best, is that even possible?)

9.9 - (my Dad's roast duck recipe)

8 - kimchi and pork stew (Korean jigae)

7.5 - baked chicken parts with kimchi

7.2 - kimchi and beef/pork/shrimp/vegetable pho broth

7.1 - kimchi with ramen noodles

7.0 - homemade kimchi straight from the jar

3 - kimchi and New England Clam Chowder

2 - kimchi using Chinese white radish

1.1 - (tuna casserole)

1 (worst, into the compost heap it goes)

Red Papaya and Kimchi Salad

Today, my salad has taken on a red theme. With the papaya salad dressing, it is slightly sweet and mildly spicy. I didn't even have to beat up green beans for this salad. That coupled with the inability to find fresh bean sprouts at the grocery store also prompted a different spin on papaya salad. I used a food processor's cheese grating disc (larger holes) to grate the entire papaya. This took about two minutes. Much better than grating it by hand.

Red Papaya and Kimchi Salad

Per serving:

1 c fresh, unripe papaya, peeled and grated
handful of ripe red plum or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c homemade kimchi
1-2 tbsp papaya salad dressing

Toss it all together in a bowl and eat.

Radish Kimchi

This is also known as daikon kimchi or Korean "kkakdugi", though it could probably use a lot more chili flakes for that. This recipe is from a book called Asian Pickles by Karen Solomon. When I weighed the radish, I found that I didn't quite have two pounds. I reduced the amount of salt and chili flakes for the initial ferment cycle. 

Ingredients

1 daikon radish, about 2 lbs
1 tbsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 tbsp Korean chili flakes
2 tbsp fish sauce

Directions

1. Peel and cube the radish into 1/2" pieces. Toss in a large bowl with salt and sugar. Let the water drain from the radish for 30 minutes. Drain the water and reserve the radish.

2. In the same bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.

3. Cover with a lid and set bowl in a cool, dark corner in the kitchen. Let ferment for 1-3 days. Stir once each day it ferments.

4. Transfer pickled radish to a clean glass jar and cap. Store in refrigerator. Eat within two weeks.

Baked Chicken with Kimchi

This dish is quick, easy and requires just a little preparation. I use an oven safe stainless steel skillet for this. It does not reheat well by stovetop or oven; so keep that in mind when planning for leftovers. Depending on the saltiness of the kimchi, there is no need to salt this dish. At the same time, you could make oven baked rice to complement the chicken. I've been using chicken thighs and other cuts could be used instead, except for skinless chicken breast. It has a different cook time than bone-in chicken meat.  If you want to be extra creative, you can reserve the chicken bones from this recipe to make chicken stock later. Simply gather all the chicken bones and freeze them until needed.

I've had mixed results cooking with skinless/boneless chicken meat. If you are using skinless chicken, you may just want to stir-fry the chicken meat (cut into 1/2" pieces) with the kimchi instead of baking.

Ingredients

1 lb raw chicken parts, with skin and bone-in
1 c homemade kimchi

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

1. In a skillet, add kimchi to the bottom then arrange chicken in a single layer on top.

2. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a meat thermometer measures 160 degrees F in the thickest part of the chicken.

3. Remove from oven and serve hot.

Plate with oven baked rice or baked sweet potatoes (these also cook for the same amount of time at the same heat setting).

Kimchi Soup

For an overcast and cooler-than-normal July day, this soup really hits the spot. It's a lot on the spicy side because my kimchi experiment came out spicier than I like; but I really haven't eaten any kimchi that doesn't burn everything it touches. Though, the heat in this soup may be what Scovillites expect. The amount of kimchi in this soup recipe might not be enough if serving more than two people.

Makes 2-3 servings.

Ingredients

1 boneless country pork rib, sliced into 1"  x 1/4" strips
1 c. homemade kimchi, drained
1 qt pork or chicken stock
1/2 c. shitake mushroom, sliced
1 c. extra firm tofu, cubed
3 tbsp shaoxing red rice wine
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 stalk green onion, sliced for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. In a bowl, marinate red rice wine and pork together for 10 minutes.

2. In a stockpot, heat pork stock to boiling. Add mushrooms, tofu, and fish sauce.

3. In a small frying pan, fry kimchi in its liquid for about five minutes. If you have taken the kimchi from the refrigerator, this step will bring it up to temperature to match the soup.

3. Add the cooked kimchi and marinated pork to the stock liquid. Let boil until the pork is cooked, up to 15 minutes, or longer depending on how tender you want the pork.

4. Serve in bowls and garnish with green onion.

Notes:

For an authentic sour flavor, use kimchi that is more than three months old or add vinegar to the soup. The cut of pork that I use for most of my pork dishes is boneless country pork rib, which is inexpensive and versatile with its high fat content. Mmmm, natural lard.

Homemade Kimchi

Korean-styled Pickled Cabbage ("kimchi")

Napa cabbage is a pretty versatile vegetable. It's heart (innermost leaves and core) are slightly sweeter than the outer leaves and is often used in Asian vegetable soups. It can be fried with a bit of oil and dried shrimp as a traditional vegetable dish. And, it can be made into one of Korea's national dishes, kimchi. The price of commercially bought kimchi often reflects the current market price on napa cabbage, and can be pretty expensive for a large jar of it. Doing it from scratch means that a few notable ingredients are left out are sugar and preservatives.

The sweetness comes from other ingredients, mainly the inner heart of the cabbage, a vidalia onion, an apple, and a pear. The longer it ferments, the more sour the kimchi will become. It's still edible, but most sites that have a similar recipe recommend that you eat it within the week or at most a few weeks.

The Foodening Blog - kimchi ready for fermenting

The original recipe walk-through comes from here. I didn't deviate from the original directions much. Large tongs can be used instead of gloves to mix the cabbage with the chili paste. I used a Fuji apple, a D'anjou pear, and a Vidalia onion.

When napa cabbage is in season, it should be about $0.99/lb. A healthy head will be about 2-3 pounds. Be sure to have a large cleaned glass jar with a lid on hand that is pint or quart sized. You can certainly have a large jar than that if you really enjoy kimchi. You'll know that it is fermenting when the liquid starts to bubble inside the jar.

The actual prep time for this recipe is about an hour. The additional time needed is for the ingredients to brine (4 hours) and/or ferment (24 hours).

Ingredients

One napa cabbage
1/4 c. sea salt + 1 c. water
1/4 c. ground red chili peppers + 1/4 c. warm water
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tbsp fish sauce
4 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
1 c. water + 1/2 apple + 1/2 pear + 1/2 yellow onion

Directions

1. In a measuring cup, dissolve 1/4 c. sea salt in water.

2. In a small bowl, mix red chili peppers with 1/4 c. warm water to form a paste.

3. In a large metal (non-plastic) bowl, combine chopped napa cabbage and salt water. Let this sit for 4 hours. Turn the cabbage every couple hours so that the white part of the leaves brine evenly.

4. After the cabbage has finished brining in the salt water, rinse it under cold water three or four times to remove all the salt water. The cabbage will still taste salty and there is no need to add additional salt.

5. In a food prep, blend into a slurry: half an onion, half a pear, half an apple with one cup of water.

6. Transfer the rinsed cabbage to a large bowl and add the red chili paste, garlic, ginger, green onions, fish sauce, and onion slurry. Mix thoroughly using tongs.

7. Fill jars with cabbage and leftover liquid. Be sure to not fill the jars to the top since the ingredients will expand slightly during fermentation. Cap jars and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours before storing in the refrigerator.

The Foodening Blog: Kimchi in Jars