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Kimchi-bokkeumbap (Kimchi Fried Rice)
Created by Chef Jeong-sun
Sour napa kimchi, cold rice, and a hot pan become the weeknight fried rice that Korean kitchens make when the refrigerator looks empty but the kimchi jar is alive.
Kimchi-bokkeumbap lives or dies by the pan, not by how many things you throw into it. People treat it like a place to hide leftovers, and it can do that, yes, but the rice still has to fry. Wet rice and shy heat give you a red mash. A hot pan, chopped sour kimchi, and cold rice give you separate grains with crisp edges.
This is the dish for the night after the table looks tired. There is half a bowl of rice, a jar of kimchi gone properly sour, a strip of pork belly if the house is lucky, or only an egg if it isn't. That is enough. Old kimchi is not a problem here, it is the reason for the dish. Fresh kimchi tastes too bright and raw; aged kimchi has the acid and depth to season the rice without needing much else.
Notebook 41 says 220 grams of kimchi to 3 cups of cooked rice. More than that and the rice steams instead of fries. Less and you are eating red rice with a memory of kimchi. Squeeze and save the kimchi juice, fry the solids first, then add back only what the rice can carry. 손맛 is real. I still measure it, so it can be handed on.
Ingredients
day-old cooked short-grain rice
Quantity
3 cups
cold, grains loosened by hand
sour napa cabbage kimchi
Quantity
220g
chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
kimchi juice
Quantity
3 tablespoons
saved from the jar, divided
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| day-old cooked short-grain ricecold, grains loosened by hand | 3 cups |
| sour napa cabbage kimchichopped into 1/2-inch pieces | 220g |
| kimchi juicesaved from the jar, divided | 3 tablespoons |
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