It's been a rough week.
Yesterday, we didn't even really eat dinner. Even after Fernando came home after a 15+ hour day with a post-work running workout with his urban crew.
I on the other hand, I'm not totally sure what I did or said for most of the past 5 days.
So yep. It's been rough.
But there are few things better than wrapping up a whirlwind, mostly upsetting week with a Friday night dinner at home in our pajamas, wine, and Fernando's kimchee bokeumbop. It's like he knew even better than I did that this is really what we needed to feel okay today. Here's the rundown.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups of short-grained, white rice (dry)
- 2 cups of water for the rice
- OR use 3 cups of yesterday's rice that you have leftover
- 1 cup of sliced cabbage kimchee (we use the Chongga brand)
- 2 Tbsp of butter
- 1/2 can of Spam, thinly sliced into 1" strips
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 Tbsp of Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
- 1/2 Tbsp of olive oil
- 2 eggs
- lots of love and patience
Steps:
- Set up the rice to cook first - this will take the longest. (~20 minutes or so, if you have one of those nifty rice cookers. Ours is around 30 years old and still chugging.)
- In a 10" skillet, add 1 Tbsp of butter over low heat.
- Once the butter is melted, add the minced garlic. And let it heat up without burning it.
- Add in the sliced kimchee and let that sautee until some of the juices release. You'll know this happens when you notice the kimchee loses it's reddish coloring.
- Add in the Spam to cook in all the kimchee juicy goodness. Cook that til the Spam pieces start getting a nice crust.
- Add the Gochujang and stir until it's fully incorporated into the mixture of buttery kimchee and Spam.
- Add the second tablespoon of butter and add in the 3 cups of rice (if it's ready).
- Mix in thoroughly until the rice itself turns the kimchee red. Fernando's trick is to press down on the rice for a nice even layer up top and a crunchy rice bottom we Koreans call nurungji, similar to the socarrat in paella or the Persian tahdig.
- While the rice gets a crispy bottom, fry up an egg per person with the olive oil or if you're Stacy, in more butter. See, we had 2 in this recipe to feed 2 adults. But read the note at the bottom. (Fernando would like to note, if you're Stacy, multiply all calls for butter by 5.)
- Fernando likes to top his bowl of bokeumbop with the fried egg, so he can mix in the runny yolk. An excellent choice.
This will feed 2 very hungry adults, or more reasonably, 3 adults.
- From Fernando, written by Stacy