My grandma’s fried rice is sacred. It’s been our house recipe since the time before time. But this weekend, I made Deuki Hong’s Kimchi Fried Rice and if there’s another version to add to your repertoire, it’s this one. I tried my grandma’s version and added kimchi, but it just wasn’t as good as Deuki’s. Bacon plus kimchi is kind of heavenly, and with a fried egg on top, this is the perfect breakfast.
The version in Koreatown: A Cookbook varies just slightly from the recipe published on Vice, and I opted for just 1/2 lb of bacon to go with 2 cups of rice. The video that accompanies the recipe is helpful, too, as Deuki suggests roasting the kimchi to intensify the flavor.
So what was the inspiration for making the rice? In fact, it was Christina Lauren’s upcoming JOSH AND HAZEL’S GUIDE TO NOT DATING, which features a Korean-American hero in a friends-to-lovers romance. His mom leaves kimchi fried rice for him in his fridge and farms off giant bags of rice on her kids. Synopsis is below. JOSH and HAZEL releases on September 4, and if you pre-order you can sign up to receive a signed bookplate. I’ll be reviewing it soon, but in the meantime, enjoy the fried rice.
SYNOPSIS:
Hazel Camille Bradford knows she’s a lot to take—and frankly, most men aren’t up to the challenge. If her army of pets and thrill for the absurd don’t send them running, her lack of filter means she’ll say exactly the wrong thing in a delicate moment. Their loss. She’s a good soul in search of honest fun.
Josh Im has known Hazel since college, where her zany playfulness proved completely incompatible with his mellow restraint. From the first night they met—when she gracelessly threw up on his shoes—to when she sent him an unintelligible email while in a post-surgical haze, Josh has always thought of Hazel more as a spectacle than a peer. But now, ten years later, after a cheating girlfriend has turned his life upside down, going out with Hazel is a breath of fresh air.
Not that Josh and Hazel date. At least, not each other. Because setting each other up on progressively terrible double blind dates means there’s nothing between them…right?
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Kimchi Fried Rice
Adapted (barely) from Deuki Hong's Kimchi Fried Rice in Koreatown: the Cookbook.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. bacon, diced
- 1 medium onion, small dice
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and minced
- 1 1/2 c. kimchi, chopped
- 2 c. day-old rice
- 1 T. gochujang
- 2 T. unsalted butter, softened
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced on the bias
- 1 egg per person, cooked sunny side up
- Gochugaru (Korean red chile flakes) for garnish
Instructions
In a large skillet or cast iron pan render bacon over high heat, until the bacon is barely starting to crisp. Pour off all but 2 T. of bacon grease.
Add onions, garlic, and ginger and sauté for 1 minute, or until very aromatic. Add chopped kimchi and rice and sauté, stirring frequently, for 4-5 minutes, until very hot. Reduce heat to medium-low and flatten the rice with your spatula. The bottom layer will continue to cook to a nice crispy consistency, about 2 minutes. Think Spanish paella here. The longer you leave it, the more crispy the bottom will become, but be careful not to burn the garlic.
While the rice continues to crisp, stir the gochujang and softened butter in a small bowl. Set aside. Stir two teaspoons of the gochujang butter into the rice.
Top each serving with a sunny side up egg, scallions, and remaining gochujang butter (if desired). Sprinkle with gochugaru.
