Kim-chi Bo-kum-bop

Kimchi Fried Rice

김치 볶음밥

Kimchi Bokumbop is a popular restaurant or home prepared dish that is very simple but yet delicious in taste. It can consist of various choices in meat and chopped kimchi, which is then sauteed together along with other vegetables such as onions, garlic and green onions.  A dash or more of soy sauce as well as sesame oil are added for seasoning, in addition to kimchi "juice” leftover in the jar.  Lastly, an egg is cooked sunny side up and placed on top of this rice dish for taste as well as for decoration.

Usually at home, it's a way to use up kimchi before it gets too ripe to eat, in which case, it can also be used to prepare kimchi chigae.  In Korean, "bokum" means sauteed or fried and "bop" translates into steamed rice.  So essentially, kimchi bokumbop is fried rice with kimchi, and yes, all those stories about Asian restaurants - today's leftover rice is tomorrow's fried rice - is true and totally applies here. There can be infinite variations of this bokumbop dish where beef can be substituted with little bits of galbi, bacon, spam, or even tofu. 

Recipe Ingredients (Yield: 2 Servings)

• 2 cup of cooked rice
• 1/2 cup of kimchi with liquid (pickled fermented vegetables)
• 50g of minced pork or ground beef
• 2 roots of green onion
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/4 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 egg
• Vegetable or olive oil
• Salt & pepper

Cooking Directions

1. Cook rice as directed in a rice cooker or in a pot.
2. Chop kimchi into small pieces. Save kimchi liquid to add to rice, if desired.
3. Dice and mince green onions, onions, and garlic.
4. Season the minced pork or beef with soy sauce, minced garlic and powdered pepper.
5. Saute the pork (or other substitutes) with vegetable or olive oil in frying pan.
6. When the pork is cooked, add chopped onions, kimchi and cook for 5 minutes.
7. Add minced garlic and green onion. Cook a little more and turn off the heat.
8. Add cooked rice and mix all ingredients well.
9. Add 1-2 tbsp of sesame oil and re-heat again.
10. Add salt and pepper to meet taste.
11. Cook egg sunny side up (or scrambled).
12. Put rice on a dish and place a fried egg sunny side up on top.