{"id":588,"date":"2011-05-30T03:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-30T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2011\/05\/30\/your-efforts-will-be-rewarded"},"modified":"2015-12-24T22:47:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-25T03:47:45","slug":"your-efforts-will-be-rewarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2011\/05\/your-efforts-will-be-rewarded\/","title":{"rendered":"Your efforts will be rewarded"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen, I know it\u2019s a holiday weekend. Most of you are probably outside, grilling or picnicking or generally engaged in some form of early-summer eating. In fact, as I type this, I can hear my neighbors on their deck, shaking a bag of charcoal briquettes, talking about Neil Diamond<\/a>. But what I would like to tell them (aside from, HAVE MERCY! NO NEIL DIAMOND TONIGHT!<\/span>), and you, too, is this: do your future self a favor and go inside and cook a pot of rice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Also, do whatever you have to do to get some Napa cabbage kimchi<\/a>. Come midweek, your efforts will be rewarded.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s taken me this long to get around to writing about kimchi fried rice. I learned how to make it more than a year ago, in early 2010, when my friend Matthew and I taped the first episode of our podcast, Spilled Milk<\/a>. The topic of the show that day was fried eggs<\/a>, and Matthew made this rice to serve with them, to sop up the yolks. (We tape at Matthew\u2019s place, almost always over lunch.) In the 17 or so months since, I\u2019ve probably made kimchi fried rice close to 17 times. I know that fried rice is supposed to be about using up leftover rice, but I don\u2019t let that slow me down: I now make rice for the sole purpose of making kimchi fried rice. Did it just the other day. And seeing as this blog is the place where I put my best stuff, I thought it was time to finally record it here, to file it as a Keeper.<\/p>\n

I am not any kind of expert on fried rice, and I don\u2019t think Matthew thinks of himself that way, either – though he\u2019s welcome to correct me, if he does. But I\u2019ve eaten kimchi fried rice in a couple of restaurants in the past few months, and the version that Matthew taught me is still my favorite. It begins with bacon, which you cook slowly, so that it gives off a nice amount of fat – that fat is important in fried rice – and then you add some chopped Napa cabbage kimchi (the riper, the better). When the kimchi is hot and beginning to look a little wilty at the edges, you add cooked rice, preferably a day or two old, the rice you\u2019re going to make today. And into that, a few minutes later, you stir a little sesame oil and butter. Kimchi and butter are crazy<\/i> for each other. It\u2019s really spectacular, what happens to the sharp funk and sting of fermented cabbage when it shakes the smoothing hand of butter. Spectacular. So you\u2019ve got that, plus the fragrant sesame oil, the bacon, and the rice, and a bowl, and it\u2019s hard to imagine needing anything else, ever, in the entire universe – except maybe some sesame seeds and sliced scallions, for garnish.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And a fried egg! Right. Almost forgot that part.<\/p>\n\n

\n
\n
Recipe<\/div>\n

Kimchi Fried Rice<\/h2>\n

Adapted from Kye Soon Hong, Matthew Amster-Burton, and Spilled Milk<\/a><\/h3> \n \n <\/header>\n\n
\n <\/figure>\n \n
\n