Eggplant and kimchi fried rice
18 Sep
Despite the abundance of Korean dishes that grace this blog, I, for the life of me, cannot make a good pot of classic, Asian rice.
Yes, even with a rice cooker.
For the longest time, I would end up with a soupy goo. Then I would over comepensate by not adding enough water and end up with nasty, brick like grains. It wasn’t until years later that my sister told me that I was using the wrong part of the hand to measure the rice:water.
So when you have a big pot of dry rice, you roll with it and make fried rice. Since I didn’t have any other ingredients on hand, I went with eggplant, which turned out to be a good combination.
What can I say, we can’t be good at everything. 
Have any of you experienced a similar frustration in the kitchen?
Based on an old post about kimchi fried rice, I’ve made some changes with instructions for adding eggplant. I would also recommend adding ham, Spam, or even some pork belly. Be sure to refrigerate your rice so that it is doesn’t get soggy when you fry it!
Serves 4
Ingredients:
3 cups of cooked cold rice
2 pieces of Japanese eggplant, diced
2 cups of chopped cabbage kimchi (older the better) and juice (about 1 cup)
3 teaspoons of sesame oil
1 can of Spam, chopped (or whatever else you want to substitute)
2 large eggs
1 sprig of green onions, diced
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
Pinch of sugar
Dash of salt and pepper
Red pepper flakes (optional)
Procedure:
1. In a large pan with no oil, add eggplant and cook on high heat. Add 1 cup of water and steam, until the eggplant browns, producing a nice crust. Add 1 more cup of water and cook through. Add soy sauce and stir. Transfer to a plate.
2. In the same frying pan, fry two eggs. Cook well. Break it up into small pieces with your spatula. Turn off heat.
3. Remove kimchi from jar (leave kimchi container out, as you will use it soon). Chop kimchi on a cutting board. be sure to wash the board immediately, as it will stain. If you have a pair of good, clean, kitchen scissors, that will work well too.
4. Add kimchi over medium heat into the same pan, until sizzling. Add a little bit of sesame oil. Cook through until kimchi is loses liquid, no longer soggy.
5. Add Spam.
6. Add cold rice. Then slowly add kimchi liquid from the container. Mix together in the pan.
7. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off heat. Add a pinch of sugar. That is the secret ingredient. Add red pepper flakes for an extra kick of heat. Garnish with green onions and serve.
