Kimchi Love

I've been sad since one of our most interesting restaurants in the neighborhood, Tanuki, closed down its northwest Portland location. It served Japanese drinking food -- lots of spice, salt, and interesting ingredients -- and prided itself on "no sushi, no kids". Needless to say, we didn't frequent much after M was born, but I remember the few meals that we ate there fondly, particularly the kimchi fried rice. I think about it often. 

A few weeks ago, I decided to purchase a jar of kimchi for just this purpose. I've been a little nervous about trying it, I'm not sure why because I love kimchi. Perhaps it was the fear of failing to even come close to the dish at Tanuki. What prompted us to make it was one unusual ingredient (other than kimchi) that we added to the refrigerator this week -- quail eggs. When we were buying our fresh eggs at the local farmers market on Thursday, the farmer added a little bonus to our bag. I've never had a quail egg, so we wanted to make a special dish to highlight this special ingredient.

The fried rice (recipe below) was quite simple and came together in about 15-20 minutes including prep time. Jesse was the wok master and I orchestrated the ingredients. M loved watching and flapped his arms around as the wok sizzled with each new ingredient. After the rice was done, J fried four quail eggs sunny side up to go on top of our bowls. The final product was quite beautiful and tasty, but I'm not sure we're quite there yet in terms of matching Tanuki's greatness. I'm okay with that though, because it means I don't need a babysitter to have kimchi fried rice.


Brasilliant's Kimchi Fried Rice


3c. cooked rice (we used brown basmati)
1c. kimchi, chopped
1/2 onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T soy sauce
2T butter
1/3 c. tiny Pacific shrimp 
1 fried egg for each serving (we used 2 quail eggs)
2 green onions, thinly sliced for garnish


Saute kimchi and onion in a wok over medium-high heat until liquid evaporates and onions are translucent. When onions and kimchi look sufficiently cooked down, add 1T butter, soy sauce and garlic. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. 


Add shrimp and cook until curled, just a minute or two. Toss in rice and another tablespoon of butter and stir to combine. Fry the eggs and place on top. Sprinkle with green onions.


Enjoy!