Bacon Kimchi Fried Rice

 
I first came across this recipe via Serious Eats, but discovered it was adapted from the fabulous Momofuku for 2 blog. As many of you know by now, I'm a fried rice a-holic. I love it and can eat it any time. I never find myself with leftover white rice, because I don't really eat a lot of white rice so I prepped the rice along with most of the other ingredients the night before. I prefer to do that so that the rice cooking can go quickly and smoothly. I also prefer to have certain things like garlic and oyster sauce in my fried rice so I had to adapt it for my taste. I love the balance of the fatty bacon with the acidic kimchi in here. I drained most of the bacon fat after reading that the Serious Eats version felt too fatty. For me, it was just perfect and I loved it so much, I made it again a week later! I'm running low on kimchi and some other Korean ingredients so it looks like I'm going to have to make another field trip to Koreatown very soon!


Bacon Kimchi Fried Rice
(Adapted from Serious Eats and Momofuku for 2)

4 slices bacon, chopped
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cold cooked rice (preferably from the day before)
1 tablespoon kimchi liquid
Oyster sauce to taste
Soy sauce to taste
3/4 cup kimchi, drained and chopped (save the liquid)
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
3 eggs, lightly scrambled
Salt and pepper to taste

Add the bacon to the wok and turn the heat to medium-high. Cook the bacon until crisp and remove from the pan using a slotted spoon. Drain the bacon on paper towels. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the wok and drain the rest.

Add the onion to the pan and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and cook just until the garlic becomes fragrant. Add the rice and toss to combine making sure to smooth out any clumps in the rice. Add oyster sauce and soy sauce to the rice, adjusting the seasonings to taste. If necessary add salt.

Add the kimchi, peas, and scrambled eggs, and bacon to the rice and toss well to combine. Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper and serve immediately.

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