Empty Fridge and Kimchi Fried Rice

OK…my fridge was not exactly empty…but I did came close to running out of groceries to make dinner. I was clueless of what to cook a few nights ago as I was almost no meat in the freezer, had only one egg in the fridge, very limited fresh vegetables and etc. I could have run to the grocery store to stock up…but I was feeling lazy.

Staring right at me was remnants of some Korean sliced beef marinated in some kind of sweet sauce. We bought the marinated beef (from H-Mart) almost a week ago to make some Korean BBQ at home when my brother and his gf was in town. And then I saw this bottle of Kimchi in my fridge. Next thing I know, I was cooking some rice and had fried rice in mind. Kimchi Fried Rice it is. I seem to have all the ingredients to make it!

Kimchi is a Korean pickle made from different kind of vegetables and assortment of seasoning. The type of Kimchi I used in my fried rice is the common “Baechu” (Napa Cabbage) type which is a lil’ on the spicy type. Although you could make your own Kimchi, I just rather buy it from the store. I don’t think I have the patience to let it ferment! =PThe Kimchi Fried Rice (Kimchi Bokumbop) is pretty easy to make. I googled for a recipe and found one HERE. I cooked my Kimchi Fried Rice with ingredients based on that recipe, adding a little more stuff and also changing the proportions of the ingredients. I used a little over a cup of chopped Kimchi and 1 cup of chopped marinated beef. Also added some chopped celery as well as frozen peas (and carrots) to the fried rice.

The result: the fried rice was edible I guess. Good, not great! Hubby and I both thought something was missing but wasn’t sure what. The fried rice wasn’t really spicy (and I did add quite a bit of juices from the Kimchi) and was more on the sweeter side.. most likely due to the marinated beef I used. Maybe it was because we’re missing the fried egg!! =) And maybe the kind of Kimchi I used were more on the mild side.