Kimchi Fried Rice

The all-time greatest late night snack. Bacon and Kimchi might not be ineffable enough of a combination to be included here, but it’s a hell of a combo. You can add a lot of things to this, but this is the basic template. I usually add frozen peas and then a raw egg yolk on top. It really couldn’t be more satisfying that way – but everybody’s got their own thing and this is a pretty solid formula.

Here’s what you need to know about frying rice: you generally want to start with cold rice. If you steam your rice, then immediately transfer it to a hot pan and expect it to fry, whatever process was ongoing with the starch packets inside the grains of rice will simply continue and you’ll end up with a sticky, glutinous mass. If the rice is chilled before it goes into a hot pan or walk, the starch has had a chance to harden and you’ll be sitting pretty. Fry rice for too long, and you’re back to the same problem of sticky, glutinous mess, but starting with cold rice seems to insure that the outside of each grain receives the proper treatment in terms of contact with oil, liquid, and the pan, and the middle of the grain gets properly warmed and puffed without exploding into the starchy whole.

If I need to cook rice that will immediately be fried, I put it in a metal mixing bowl, then spread it around and up the edges so it’s sticking everywhere on the bowl – that is, so it’s thinly and uniformly spread out over the bowl, not piled in the center – and I place it in the freezer. I leave it there for a few minutes, stir, re-spread, and replace in the freezer, continuing this until it has fully cooled, which takes no more than 10 minutes. (You do not, under any circumstances, want to leave rice out at room temperature, by the way. Doing so begins the process of growing a little bacteria called B. Cereus, I’m not kidding. After 24 hours at room temperature, it has propagated enough in rice to release a toxin inside you when you eat it that makes you pretty miserable for the next few days. I’ve gotten this twice, once in Ghana and once in Somerville, MA, and it was no fun either time. Be serious about B. Cereus.)

None of these issues seem to affect brown rice, whose casing, pre-stripped from white rice, allows it to fry up just fine. I’m a pretty late arrival to the brown rice game but now can’t get enough of it in the right circumstance – and Kimchi Fried Rice certainly is that. I’ve only ever made this with short grain brown rice – and start frying as soon as it is done steaming to no ill effect – but it’s hard for me to imagine a variety that wouldn’t be delicious, if properly handled.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry short grain brown rice
• 1TBSP butter
• 3 slices bacon (the thicker the better), diced
• 10 oz kimchi, rough chopped fine
• 2 TBSP kimchi liquid
• 1 TBSP soy sauce
• 1/4 cup frozen peas
• 1 egg yolk

Directions:

Cook your rice according to the type. I generally add a bit of salt when I’m steaming rice; in this case, I do not, since there’s plenty of salt in the final dish.

When the rice is basically done, I like to off the heat and just let it steam for 5 mins anyway, so in this case, that’s my cue to prep the rest of my ingredients. I dice bacon by stacking the strips, cutting in half cross-wise, then stacking again so I have one stack 6 strips high. Then I cut these lengthwise (like into batons) in thirds, then cut into a dice cross-ways. Finally, I usually discard the very ends which tend to just be fat. But look, any old way is fine.

Melt your butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. I like to use non stick for fried rice, which just means that it’s not leaving anything behind on the bottom with each toss. When the butter is foamy, add the bacon. Render the bacon until it is crispy, stirring occasionally, over medium-low heat. You don’t want to burn or overly brown the edges before the fat has had a chance to render. While it is rendering, chop your kimchi. This isn’t that exacting – I just run a large knife over it five or six times, alternating directions, until it is rough chopped pretty fine. Really doesn’t need to be exact – so don’t go crazy stacking napa cabbage and then finely brunoising it.

When the bacon is done, there should be a good bit of fat in the pan – you want to leave this in there unless is is just drenched, in which case you should drain some off. Be a good judge of how much fat to use – based on what the rice needs to cook properly, but also where the line is between slightly decadent and just plain gross. You know?

OK, so now you turn the heat up to high and add the rice. Stir/shake/toss to evenly distribute all the bacon and its fat and butter in amongst the rice, and allow to cook on high heat for about 1 minute, then add all the kimchi. Stir/toss again till everything is evenly distributed, then cook for another 30 seconds before adding the kimchi liquid and soy. Cook, stirring/tossing every so often, for another three or four minutes. At this point it should be leaving some streaks across the bottom of the pan when you toss it, and caramelizing on the pan at the edges. Depending on the heat level of the kimchi – and I like mine super, super, super hot – it may be difficult to breathe in your kitchen, especially right over the pan, which is all part of the fun.

Add the peas, toss, and cook for no more than a minute to heat through. Serve and enjoy at once, placing an egg yolk right on top. If I can stand to wait, I love letting the egg yolk temper a bit in the heat of the rice – just makes the whole thing a little creamier. Amazing.