Too many K-dramas during COVID19 are triggering an overwhelming craving for Korean food, so I made kimchi fried rice a few days ago 😂
What you need
Rice You’ve probably heard that day old rice is best for fried rice. However, if you don’t have time to plan ahead, just use less water to boil your rice so it comes out drier.
Kimchi This gets its intense flavours from kimchi (obviously!).
Other seasonings Other than using well fermented kimchi juice, I only add soy sauce for saltiness and sesame oil at the end for that nutty fragrance. Some recipes call for gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes) but I find these three ingredients are more than enough for an intense flavour.
Aromatics An essential in Asian cooking, garlic plays an important role in flavouring the oil.
Other condiments To give it more texture and flavour oomph, a variety of meat and vegetables are often added. I usually add carrots, cabbage, and yellow onions. If I have time, I make fried anchovies (ikan bilis). Now that I have an airfryer, I just pop them into my airfryer and voila, crispy ikan bilis to scatter on top of the rice, yum!
Jazz it up with cheese
This basic recipe is delicious as it is. It hits the signature Korean notes of spicy, sweet and tangy. But you can up the ante even further by adding cheese. Fry your rice in the same saucepan which you’ll be serving your fried rice (for maximum fancy-restaurant effect lah). After the rice has finished frying (that’s step 4 in the recipe), sprinkle the top with shredded cheese and cover with a lid for a minute or two until the cheese melts. Voila, you’re done!
Watch how to make kimchi fried rice here
Kimchi Fried Rice
Equipment
- wok, rice cooker, spoon
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice, cooked and cooled
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup kimchi, chopped
- 1 tbsp kimchi juice
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 cup cabbage, chopped
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 stalk spring onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp anchovies, fried until crispy
- furikake
Instructions
- Heat 1-2 tbsp oil in wok. Add onion and saute until transparent.
- Add garlic, kimchi and cabbage to wok. Spread them out in a thin layer so that they acquire a slight char; this step intensifies the flavour.
- Finally add rice. Toss to mix everything well. Taste for seasoning – add more soy sauce if necessary. Finally, add a few drops of sesame oil.
- Serve up. Spinkle with spring onion, crispy fried anchovies and furikake for extra umami. Enjoy!
Notes
2. Sesame oil should always be added at the end of the cooking process. It has aromatic compounds that dissipate with excessive heat, so if you add it during cooking, sesame oil will lose some of its flavour.
3. You don’t have to cook your rice overnight for fried rice. A faster way: after boiling, spread out the warm rice in a thin layer on a tray. After it’s cooled enough, put inside a fridge to cool for a few hours. That should be enough to harden the rice for frying.
4. In case you’re wondering why the rice grains are red, I used Langit Collective’s Beras Sia and was really surprised (in a good way). The rice grains don’t stick so much to the wok, which makes cleanup easier, but most importantly the rice has more bite, almost like lor mai (glutinous rice/nasi pulut). Me likey!Craving more Asian rice recipes? Try my fail-proof claypot chicken rice!