Kimchi Fried Rice

It still amazes me on how much dishes you could create with kimchi. This time, I made Kimchi Fried Rice when I was super hungry and had limited ingredients in the refrigerator. It’s quick, cheap, delicious and nutritious.

Kimchi Fried Rice

½ cup Napa Kimchi (chopped)

1/3 cup Chopped Onion

1 tsp Gochujang

1 tsp Soy Sauce

1/3 cup Sliced Beef/Chicken (I used Sausages)

1 cup Rice

Salt to taste

Sesame Oil

1 # Fried Egg

1. Heat pan with some oil. Add in chopped kimchi and onion. Stir for 3 minutes.

2. Add gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) and soy sauce in the pan. Then, add in sliced meat.

3. Add in rice and coat well. Add in salt to taste.

4. Transfer rice to a plate and drizzle some sesame oil on top.

5. Top rice with fried egg before serving.

Kimchi Chicken Roulade

I love Kimchi! There are countless of dishes that you could make with kimchi.

I had some kimchi left in the refrigerator, and I thought of preparing a chicken roulade with them. Instead of preparing a sauce to go with the roulade, I made a tomato chicken broth. I simply mixed chicken stock with tomato ketchup and soy sauce, and they're good to go. The tartness from tomato ketchup goes very well with the kimchi.

Kimchi Chicken Roulade

1 piece of chicken breast (flatten)

lemon juice

1/4 cup kimchi

1 tsp gochujang (korean chili paste)

1 tsp honey

olive oil

salt to taste

Flatten your chicken breast. Cut your breast in half length-wise to make the piece thinner. You may pound your chicken with meat mallet if you like your chicken thinner.

Marinade your chicken breast with lemon juice for an hour or longer. I learned that lemon juice would make your chicken tender. Take out your kimchi and squeeze them until let the juice came out. Then, chop them coarsely. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix gochujang with honey, and set aside.

Pat dry your chicken breast with a paper towel. Sprinkle a bit of salt on both side. Next, place chopped kimchi lengthwise along middle of breast. Using plastic wrap, tightly roll up each breast lengthwise, tucking in the ends to enclose the filling. Secure seams with wooden toothpick. Rub the rolled chicken with the mixture of gochujang and honey.

Drizzle olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Brown roulade on each side for 5 minutes total, Cover the skillet with a lid, and let it cook for another 5 minutes or until the roulade is cooked through.

Place your roulade on a cutting board, and remove the toothpick. Cut the roulade into 1 inch slice. Ready to serve. You may serve them with your desired sauce.

p/s: HAPPY NEW YEAR! How did you like the new look on this blog?

Creamy Kimchi Pasta

Some people went out looking for food when they're hungry. Most of the time, I would cook instead of going out to look for something to eat - and pasta is one of the dishes I love to make when I'm hungry. It's simple, easy and I could add anything into my pasta. I have a container of kimchi in my refrigerator, and I was thinking of making creamy kimchi pasta just for fun.

Creamy Kimchi Pasta

120g spaghetti

1/4 cup kimchi

50g cuttlefish

1tbsp gochujang

1/4 cup warm milk

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 small onion, chopped

oil

1 scallion

1. Boil the pasta as according to package instruction

2. Squeeze your kimchi until the juice came out. Then, chop them coarsely.

3. Heat oil in pan with medium heat. Saute onion until soften. Add in garlic and kimchi and saute until fragrant. Then, toss in cuttlefish.

4. Add in gochujang and warm milk and and stir until combined.

5. Serve immediately and garnish with scallion

Tips: When making kimchi pasta, you don't need to add in any salt because kimchi is already salty. But, you can add in some salt if you like your pasta saltier.

Kimchi and Egg Grilled Sandwiches

I'm addicted to grilled sandwiches lately. They're easy. And a friend told me that grilled toast have less calories than plain toast bread. I'd like to think that I'm eating healthily, so, I guess that's why I'm addicted to grilled sandwiches.

One of my favorite moment with grilling this sandwiches is flipping the toast on my frying pan (since we don't have a toaster). I've been practicing my flipping technique lately... And I think it's improving, since most of the food didn't fly out from my pan.

Okay, back to the grilled sandwiches. This one is kimchi and egg grilled sandwiches,which is inspired from Kevin from Closet Cooking. I love his blog. The recipes are good and the pictures are absolutely appetizing.

Kimchi and Egg Grilled Sandwiches

1 boiled egg

1/4 cup kimchi, drained and chopped

1/4 cup alfalfa sprout

2 tbsp mayonnaise

2 slice of bread.

a pinch of salt and paper to taste

Direction:

1. Spread toast bread with butter and grilled them over low heat for 2 minutes.

2. Mash boiled egg to desired consistency and set aside.

3. Saute the kimchi with little oil for 3 to 5 minutes. Then, mix in kimchi, egg, mayonnaise, salt and paper.

4. Assemble sandwiches. Lay alfalfa sprout on bread, and topped them with kimchi mixture. 

Note: In Closet Cooking recipes, Kevin added in some gochujang (Korean chili paste) in his mayonnaise. I tried them sometimes later. And gochujang and mayonnaise are a great combination!

My First Bento Box

I bought myself this cute looking bento box a few months ago because I loved Shannon's BentoLunch.net. I mean, her creations were super cute and she never failed to amaze me. So, I bought this bento box, hoping that someday I might as well create something as amazing as hers. And when I saw that dragonflies on the bento box, I just can't resist myself from buying them!

So, last weekend, I prepared some Kimbab with kimchi and used my bento box for the very first time. I was really excited that I've been using this bento box for the first time! :D

Sushi Fun

My family brought me a sushi set for me a few years ago for my birthday. I've never used the equipments, and they've been asking me when will I be making them some sushi. So, last Sunday, we were having some making some Makizushi.

My brother wanted to try rolling them too, and was given the chance to roll some Kani Kama Maki (imitation crab meat roll) and Tamago Maki (egg roll). My little sister wanted to try too, but I didn't cook enough rice for her to try them.

I added in some Kimchi, in my Maki Roll. So, they should be called Kimbap instead, right? Maybe we could learn another types of sushi as well. I know I've been wanting to use that rice mold I've bought a few months ago. Maybe I could make my first bento too? :D

Experimenting: Kimchi Omelet

I still have some kimchi left in my jar. I thought it would be good if I try and experimenting something in my kitchen again using kimchi. I thought that kimchi omelet would be nice.

First, I beat an egg with some salt and pepper. Then, I beat in some kimchi in the egg batter. Then, I melt some butter into a frying pan. Then, I pour the egg mixture into the center of the pan. It's not good. It's not easy to flip the the egg and kimchi mixture. And I am not really good in flipping my omelet too. In the end, the omelet became a kimchi scramble egg. I think, the kimchi let its juice out. Thus, making it hard for me to flip them. But the good thing is that the spiciness of kimchi is reduced when I beat the egg and kimchi together.

The inside of the kimchi omelet

Second, I beat an egg with some salt and pepper. Then, I melt a knob of butter into a frying pan, and pour the egg into the center of the pan. I flip the omelet to cook them on both side, and flip them again. Then, I scoop a spoonful of kimchi, and add it on the center of the egg, and fold them. It's much more easier than the first experiment :) Serve them in a plate, and pour some kimchi's juice on top of the egg. It taste good with hot steamed rice too!

Happy Experimenting!

P.S - I didn't have the picture of the first experiment. It doesn't look really good

Kimchi

Kimchi

I was smitten with the taste of Kimchi when I experimented for my Cabbage Wrap with Kimchi Paste. I love spicy food, and I love the spiciness of Kimchi. So, I went to Maangchi, and found an easy recipe of Kimchi. It's a perfect side dishes! I made 1/4 of the recipe given, and stored them in a jar. When I need something spicy, I'll just pop open the jar, and have the Kimchi as my side dishes.

Click here for recipe

Cabbage Wrap with Kimchi Paste

Cabbage Wrap and White Radishes with Kimchi Paste

I need to go on a diet. After a few months lazying around the house, I noticed that I've put up some weight. Then, my mother mentioned that my dad wanted to go on a diet too, and she needs to think of some menu for dieting. I thought that Cabbage Wrap is a good menu for dieting, and went around looking for the recipes.

However, I thought that the Cabbage Wrap looked somewhat plain. It needed some sort of dipping sauce, or gravy. I was thinking of something spicy, and remembered that cabbage would taste great in kimchi, and started to Google for some kimchi paste recipe on the internet.

The Cabbage Wrap with Kimchi Paste taste really good!! I thought that the kimchi paste was too spicy for my preferences, but after a while, I get addicted to the taste. I'm going to keep the recipe and try them again for sure!

Recipe:

2 medium size Chinese Cabbage
400g Ground Beef
1 Medium Carrot - diced/chopped
1 large Onion - chopped
1 clove garlic - chopped
Salt and Pepper

Kimchi Paste (Click for recipe)


Direction:

1. Combine ground beef with chopped carrot, garlic and onion. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Preheat oven to 180ºC.
3. Boil a large pot of water on stove, and sprinkle some salt.
4. Pull the cabbage leaf off the head carefully. Blanch the leaves a few minutes until they're tender. Dry the blanched cabbage on the chopping board.
5. Take the ground beef mixture and place on the edge of the leave. Roll the leaf. Make sure that the beef mixture is fully covered.
6. Arrange the wrapped cabbage into a casserole bowl and pour the kimchi paste on top of the cabbage.
7. Put the dish on the oven, and bake for 10 minutes at 180ºC.