Den in the Kitchen: Kimchi Fried Rice

You all know I love to eat, but cooking is something I haven't done in a while. I used to love to cook, but busy schedules somehow got in the way of me being in the kitchen. Lately, I've fallen back in love with cooking, and I thought I'd start sharing with you some simple recipes you can try at home in a blog series I'm gonna call "Den in the Kitchen." My nickname is Den, I cook in the kitchen, it rhymes, so why not call it that? Anyway, I saw some leftover kimchi in our fridge so I thought of making some Kimchi Fried Rice!

The thing is, I don't measure when I cook (got it from my parents). I just sort of just eyeball everything, and taste as I go along. So, I apologize if some of these posts won't have measurements for the ingredients. I wanted to keep these posts casual anyway, instead of a very detailed cookbook-like recipe. It's more of just giving you an idea on how to make them, then you can just customize them to suit your own taste. Okay, enough talk. Let's get cooking!

Ingredients:

Sesame Oil

Garlic

Onion

Ground Beef

Oyster Sauce

Kimchi

Carrots

Cucumber

Rice

Eggs

Salt

Pepper

1. Sautee minced garlic and onion in sesame oil. If you don't have sesame oil, you can just use regular oil.

2. Add ground beef and oyster sauce, season with salt and pepper, and sautee until brown.

3. Add kimchi. Use as little or as much as you want. 

4. Add carrots and cucumber, and stir until vegetables are cooked. I would have preferred to use bean sprouts and/or zucchini instead of the cucumber, but that was all I had in the fridge so I had to make do. You can add other vegetables that you like, too.

5. Add rice, and mix everything together.

6. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

7. Beat an egg, pour all over the rice, and stir. I find that adding a beaten egg towards the end of cooking fried rice really keeps it moist.

9. Plate your fried rice, and top with a fried egg. I like my egg yolk runny.

10. Serve, and enjoy!

I thought of making this dish because these were the ingredients I had lying around at home. Believe me, some of the best dishes come from being creative with what you can find in your fridge!

If you try to make this dish, share a picture of it to me on Twitter or Instagram (@deniseyalung)!