TRY A QUICK, KOREAN DINNER
Rice, kimchi, egg combine perfectly
Emily Wight, a 32-year-old Vancouver blogger and now cookbook author, has a refreshingly easy approach to food.
“Our friends kind of end up here around dinner time,” says the mother of a 3-year-old who also works full-time in communications at the University of British Columbia. “I like to host. It’s a good way to let people know you like them.”
Wight, whose new book Well Fed, Flat Broke includes 120 easy, inexpensive recipes, says she doesn’t fuss, even for guests. “I feel that people come over here expecting good food and a relaxed time, and so I relax too.”
She admits, however, that the daily slog — “when work is annoying and the bus smells like a damp sheep’s crotch” (she’s a creative writing grad) — can be exhausting.
“But a warm nourishing meal is a salve that makes the other stuff easier to take.”
One of her strategies, Wight says, is to cook a big batch of rice when she’s “not too busy and then stick it in the refrigerator (in the pot) once it’s cool, and it’s there to save me when I need it, usually on a Tuesday when I have nothing left to give to the world or my family.
“Is the idea of dinner a huge and terrible effort? Fry some rice.”
This seriously good recipe could definitely be a salve at the end of a busy day. Just the smell of the onions frying in the bacon fat and sesame oil is enough to warm your spirits.
You’ll be really happy about 10 minutes later when you’re tucking into the slightly spicy orange-red rice with crunchy bits of bacon and warm egg yolk flowing into the mix.
I bought the kimchi ($4.99 for 2 cups/500 mL) and gochujang ($6.99 for 1.1 lb/500g — enough to make this recipe 30 times) at Arum Korean Market on Bank Street just north of the Queensway.
I was advised there to leave the kimchi out on the counter for half a day or overnight to let it ferment a bit, then to squeeze the juice out of it with my hands before chopping for the fried rice. It worked perfectly.
FIND STEP-BY-STEP PHOTOS FOR MAKING THIS DISH AT OTTAWACITIZEN.COM/FOOD