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Baked cheesy kimchi fried rice

Name: Baked cheesy kimchi fried rice
Total time: 1 h
Ingredients: vegetable oil 1 tbsp; guanciale or bacon lardons 60g, diced; mirin 1 tbsp; gochujang (Korean fermented chilli paste) 1 heaped tsp; kimchi 200g, roughly chopped; oyster sauce 2 tsp; sugar 1 tsp; cooked and cooled leftover short grain rice 300g; cheese 120g, coarsely grated (cheddar, gruyère, provolone and mozzarella all work well, or use a mixture); spring onion 1, finely sliced; fried eggs 2, to serve (optional)

1 hour
serves 2
Easy

Although a Korean-style comfort food dish (you'll need both kimchi and gochujang), this salty-spicy recipe also calls for guanciale, an Italian cured pork product made from the fatty cheeks or jowls of the pig

Published: January 12, 2021 at 4:33 pm

Try this recipe for baked kimchi fried rice, then check out our kimchi noodles, kimchi-baked tofu, and kimchi grilled cheese toastie. Want to make your own version of this fermented cabbage? Try our easy recipe for homemade kimchi.

Recipe author Su Scott says: “Koreans love a pork and kimchi pairing. Well-ripened kimchi is preferred here as it carries incredible depth of flavour. Cooked down in the succulent, almost sweet-tasting rendered fat of guanciale, it becomes gorgeously silky and unctuous. Fried eggs are optional but I would strongly recommend you have them as the crispy egg white is a welcome break between the salty and spicy bite, while the egg yolk adds another layer of lusciousness.”

Su Scott is an award-winning blogger, having most recently won an OFM award in 2019 in the reader’s recipe category. Recipes on her blog (@babaganuj) are influenced by her childhood in Korea as well as her time living in the UK, dishes that she and her husband recognise as “our food, from two continents and beyond”.

Ingredients

vegetable oil 1 tbsp
guanciale or bacon lardons 60g, diced
mirin 1 tbsp
gochujang (Korean fermented chilli paste) 1 heaped tsp
kimchi 200g, roughly chopped
oyster sauce 2 tsp
sugar 1 tsp
cooked and cooled leftover short grain rice 300g
cheese 120g, coarsely grated (cheddar, gruyère, provolone and mozzarella all work well, or use a mixture)
spring onion 1, finely sliced
fried eggs 2, to serve (optional)

Method

Step 1

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Pour the oil into a 26cm ovenproof, non-stick or cast iron frying pan set over a medium heat, add the guanciale and fry for 5 minutes or so, until the fat has rendered down and it starts to crisp up.
Step 2

Add the mirin and gochujang, and stir briefly, then add the kimchi, oyster sauce and sugar. Fry gently for 5 minutes until the kimchi has softened a little and smells fragrant.
Step 3

Turn the heat off. Stir in the rice and a third of the cheese, and mix thoroughly so the rice is evenly distributed.
Step 4

Using the back of a spatula or a large spoon, spread the rice thinly and evenly around the pan, pressing down quite firmly.
Step 5

Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Scatter the remaining cheese on top, then bake for a further 5-10 minutes.
Step 6

When ready, scatter over the spring onion, then serve hot with or without fried eggs.