kimchi fried rice

The fastest month of my life!

And the most Googling I’ve ever done in 31 days.

One thing I Googled? How to bring an infant to the grocery store. I planned to wear her in my Moby wrap, but it’s a little cumbersome to get her in and out of the car seat since we insist on dressing her as if we live in the arctic circle.

So I discovered that some grocery stores have carts with “Safe Dock” which is basically a plastic tub on the top that you can pop the car seat into, and then a seatbelt that goes across the car seat. It appears moderately safe and, given that I was not competing on Supermarket Sweep or shopping on a Sunday morning of a Ravens game, I figured we would be okay.

The problem with the Safe Dock is that the car seat then completely blocks your field of vision, which I discovered after I crashed into a display of Sun-Maid raisins and sent the entire thing cascading all over the floor. I then broke the only rule of the Safe Dock (don’t abandon your cart) and dove on the floor to attempt to pick them up. There was a Harris Teeter employee right there who definitely saw the whole thing and started to clean it up.

I was profusely apologizing and trying to explain that I hadn’t seen it over the car seat. He definitely thought I was hysterical and crazy and was like “Ma’am. MA’AM! Just walk away.”

Fail.

So in the haze of my embarrassment I didn’t manage to grab a coherent cart of groceries, and ended up assembling this meal with mostly things we already had, plus the two new items I did grab: a pork tenderloin and some broccolini.

Kimchi Fried Rice

1 cup uncooked rice, any kind works, or 2 cups leftover

1 pork tenderloin, chopped (or any protein you have!)

2 tbs sesame oil

1 tbs canola oil

3 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped

1 sweet onion, diced

2 cups chopped broccolini (or any green veggie you have!)

1 cup kimchi, chopped

2 tbs soy sauce

eggs

sriracha, for serving

Start by cooking your rice according to package directions. You can do this ahead of time, or use leftover rice!

In a wok, heat a little bit of canola oil and a little bit of sesame oil. Season the pork (or chicken, or beef) with salt and pepper, and cook in batches until seared on all sides.

Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook until translucent. Add the kimchi.

Add the soy sauce, then the pork. Stir in the rice to combine everything.

At this point I took it all out of the wok, added a little more sesame oil and garlic, and cooked the broccolini. Then I stirred that into the rice mixture. Put one serving’s worth of the rice back into the wok and add one whisked egg, stirring to distribute it throughout as it cooks. This way you don’t have any servings that are too eggy, and the leftovers are better when there isn’t already egg in there.

It should come as no surprise that this was actually better the second night. And so easy to re-heat! Just one serving into the wok at a time, with or without the egg.