I like fried rice, but I don’t make it very often. I guess because I never got good at making it. Well, a few months ago I decided that had to change.
I love kimche and I love Japanese beef. I also love my homemade smoked habanero and jalapeno peppers. So, I decided to develop a recipe based on these ingredients, a ‘kimuchi chahan’, as it would be called in Japanese.
Also, I recalled a dish that an ex-gf (who couldn’t cook) used to make for me on Saturday nights. It was the one thing she cooked. It was fried ‘genmai’ brown rice with dried chili pepper and was garnished with chirimen jako (sardine fry) and that weird Japanese mayonnaise that you squeeze out of an incredibly soft and cheap feeling plastic bottle. This is the mayonnaise that is used to garnish okonomiyaki and takoyaki. Normally, I wouldn’t ingest this stuff but, I decided to use it as it is such a part of modern Japanese culinary culture, at least on the low-end.
So, start out with some Japanese ‘wagyu’ beef and saute it a wok until brown. If it is very fatty I pour off the oil, the dogs love it on their dog food. Then add rough chopped garlic, garlic greens, smoked chili and saute until brown. Then, add the kimchi. After this has cooked down, about 10 minutes cooking time total, I remove it to a bowl. Into the wok goes the brown rice, which this time I cooked in homemade chicken broth and allowed to cool to room temperature. Break it apart with a rice paddle in preparation for frying in the wok.
With a healthy amount of olive oil in the wok, get it plenty hot and then put in the cooked and cooled brown rice. On high heat I fry this for about 10 minutes or until the rice starts to brown a bit. Into this goes black pepper, a bunch of chopped scallion and an egg or two. Maybe a bit of soy sauce and mirin too. Use some sake to deglaze the pan if need be and then add the beef and kimche mixture. Over high heat mix well and your done. Serve the fried rice on large plates and then quickly saute cherry tomatoes in the same wok on high heat for a minute or two — just until they start to blister and soften.
Garnish the fried rice with the cherry tomatoes and some chopped fresh greens, I used Kyoto’s famous mizuna.
Finally, squeeze on that horrible, I mean wonderful, mayonnaise and sprinkle on plenty of chirimen jako. I fry the chirimen jako in olive oil until golden brown and crunchy.
I have made this dish half a dozen times or so and I must say, I am quite in awe of my creation now. This dish has a huge taste so I pair it with some high powered beer like Chimay Grand Reserve. Now that is a meal!!
