Kimchi Fried Rice Recipe

I love Kimchi Fried Rice. It is so easy to make and it always taste good. The bad part about it is I eat too much when I make this fried rice.

I like having Kimchi in my fridge all the time so when I don't have anything and if I don't want to go to the grocery store, I can take out bacon from the freezer and cook rice and make this fried rice.

This time, I added some left over vegetables which I had in the fridge but this is totally optional and you can add any kind of vegetables you have in hand (or you don't have to add any vegetables if you prefer)


Kimchi Fried Rice
Printable Recipe

Cooked Rice   3~4 cups
Kimchi            10.6oz (300g)
Bacon or thin sliced pork 1/4~1/2 lb
Green Onion   5~6
Ginger             1inch
Garlic              1clove
Daikon Radish  1/2 cup (optional)
Lotus root          1/2 cup (optional)
vegetable oil       1 table spoon
Butter                  1 table spoon
Salt  & Pepper     to taste

1. First, cut bacon (or pork) and all the vegetables into small pieces. Mince garlic and ginger.

2. Also, chop kimchi into small pieces.

I used this kimchi from Trader Joe's

3. In a flying pan or wok, add 1 table spoon of vegetable oil and heat. Then add garlic and ginger. Wait till fragrant then add meat and vegetable. Sprinkle salt and pepper.

4. When the meat is cooked and vegetables are little soft, add chopped green onion.

5. Saute

6. Add Kimchi then butter and fry them a little bit. Then add rice.

7. When it is all mixed, taste and add salt and pepper if necessary then serve.

Super easy and yummy Kimchi Fried rice!

I think depends on what kimchi you use and how much rice you add but this particular one I made was not too spicy (I think it was because I added lots of vegetables and rice) so my son was able to eat it also. He said it is spicy but he kept eating :-)

I love making fried rice so I can clean out my fridge. It is super easy. The only tedious part is to chop all the vegetables into small pieces but after that it is so fast!

If you like Kimchi, you definitely will like Kimchi Fried Rice! Please give it a try.

A few things which I made at the end of last year

There are a few things which I made at the end of last year and didn't have a chance to post so I would like to share them with you here today.

First, I made Bulgogi which is a Korean beef dish.

I marinade thinly sliced beef with some soy sauce, sesame oil, sake, chili paste, garlic and ginger.

Then, cut some vegetables. I used garlic chives and onion and bean sprouts.

Then, just saute them all in a pan. Easy and tasty.

With bulgogi, I also made Banbanji which is kind of like a salad. Steamed chicken with vegetables and sesame sauce.

First, I microwaved chicken thigh with green onion and garlic. Then also microwave some bean sprout. Also, I cut some cucumber into think slices. For the sauce, I mixed garlic, white sesame paste, sake, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and stuff. Pour them over and serve cold.

On some other day, I was craving for crepe so I made crepes with my husband. In the beginning, the crepe dough was too thick and the crepe came out thinker than I like so I added some more milk into the dough and made it perfect consistency. The second crepe came out perfectly. Maybe I can open a crepe store :-) My favorite crepe is with banana, whipped cream, chocolate syrup and almond slices.

My husband was adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of this. Crepes were much easier than I thought. This is a great and elegant looking snack. You can also make crepe with some savory ingredients and make it as lunch.

Some other day, I made Japanese hamburg. This is a very popular dish in Japan. It is like a hamburger patty but you don't eat it with buns. We add some vegetables such as onions and stuff and eat it with rice. For this one, I added onion, Japanese basil and tofu. I steam fried in a pan and it came out really juicy and tasty. For sauce, I mixed butter and mirin and soy sauce in the frying pan after I made hamburg and pour it over with some grated daikon radish.

My husband also cooked for me during the holiday. He made this wonderful curry chicken salad. He sautéed chicken with curry powder and added on top of salad. It was very tasty and satisfying salad.

This holiday season was wonderful for both my husband and I. We didn't travel anywhere this time but we were able to relax, cook together, go shopping together, go to movies and stuff like that. We really had a great alone times together.

Yummy! Seafood Kimchi Tofu Soup

I made this kimchi soup the other day and it was so good that I was really surprised. I had kimchi and tofu in my fridge and I bought frozen seafood mix from Trader Joe's the other day so I wanted to try making this type of soup.

I had this kind of soup at some Korean restaurant and I wanted to recreate the same flavor. I think I came up with something pretty close!

Here is how I made it.

Seafood Kimchi Tofu Soup (2~3 people)

Ingredients

Tofu                       about 400g
Seafood Mix          1cup
Yellow Onion         Large Half
Green Onion           3
Kimchi                    1 cup
Pork (thinly Sliced) about 100g
Garlic                       3 cloves (grated)
Water                      about 4 cups
Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)  2 table spoons
Bonito powder     1 table spoon
Soy Sauce            1 table spoon
Sake                     2 table spoon
Sugar                    1 table spoon
Sesame Oil           1 table spoon
Vegetable Oil       1 table spoon
Chives                  for garnish

1. First, cut the yellow onion into thin slices and the green onion into about 1 inches. Also cut thinly sliced pork into bite size pieces.

2. Heat up vegetable oil in a pot and add pork, yellow onion, green onion. When the pork is cooked, add frozen seafood mix and also add grated garlic and saute.

3. Then, add chopped Kimchi. (You don't need to chop it but I did)

 Saute

4. When the vegetables and seafood are cooked, add water and bring to a boil. Then add bonito powder, gochujang, soy sauce, sake, sugar, sesame oil. Taste. Add more gouchujang if it is not too spicy for you.

5. Bring it to boil again, then add Tofu and let it simmer for a few minuets.

5. Serve in a bowl with sprinkles of chive. It goes very well with white rice on the side.

I think it will be great if you also add some eggs if you like eggs. Next time, I will try it with eggs. This looks pretty spicy but actually it was not too spicy. It was just perfect spicy level. I was so pleased with this dish. I have to go get more kimchi.

When I make something like this or Kimchi fried rice, I used lots of Kimchi at once so it will be gone pretty quickly. Kimchi is something I would like to have in my fridge all the time!

A few years ago, my husband was not too keen on Korean food but now he loves it! I am so happy. It is funny how people's taste bud change. If you like Korean food, I think you will like this soup. It tastes great from all the great flavor coming out from seafood and pork. Love it!

Korean Beef Dish, Bulgogi

I had very thinly sliced beef in the freeze which I bought in a Japanese supermarket so I decided to make "Bulgogi" Which is a Korean dish with beef and vegetables. I like this dish and I eat this sometimes when I go to Korean restaurant but I had never made it myself. It came out really good!

My secret ingredients in this recipe was apple. I heard somewhere that koreans use pear to marinade meat. I didn't have a pear at home but I had an apple so I decided to use this for marinade.

Here is the recipe

Bulgogi
Ingredients
Very Thinly Sliced Beef    0.75lb
Carrot                                 1
Bell Pepper                        Half
Green Onion                      10
Yellow Onion                    1 1/2
Shiitake Mushroom           5
Apple                                1/2
Garlic                                2 clove
Soy Sauce                         4 Table spoons
Japanese Sake                   3  Table spoons
Sesame Oil                        2 Table spoons
Sugar                                 1 Table spoons
Vinegar                             3 Table spoons
toasted white sesame        2 Table spoons

1. Grate 1/2 Apple, 1/2 Yellow onion and 2 garlic cloves into a large bowl. (I grated apple with skin on so there are some red stuff in it)

2 In this bowl, add meat, vegetables and all the spices.

3. Mix them very well with your hand so all the ingredients gets marinade.

4. Cover with plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge for a few hours.

5. Then, take it out from the fridge. Heat some vegetable oil into a frying pan and add all the mixture into the pan.

6. When the meat is cooked through and the vegetables are soft, it is done. Serve it with rice.

This was really good. Maybe the grated apple and onion I used for the marinade was a good idea for this  dish. I like the sweetness from the apple. If you like something spicy, you can add some chili paste or something but I like it this way, sweet and salty.

After eating this dish, I asked my husband if he can guess the secret ingredients. He couldn't guess it  but he liked the taste.

I have been watching some of the World Cup games. Yesterday, Japan had a game against Denmark. Japan won! It was a great game. I heard that lots of Japanese were watching this game despite the time difference. I think the game started at 3:30am Japan time. I even saw some photo of Japanese cities with bunch of people watching a huge screen together this early morning.

It was a great game for them. I am very proud of them. I was very surprised that Italy couldn't make it to the next round. When I saw one of the Italian player cry after the game, I start crying also for some reason. I don't know why I did. I think as I get older, I cry easily than I used to :-)

Anyway, tomorrow is the U.S. game! They always have dramatic games and I am very excited about it. Maybe I should go to a sports bar or something and enjoy this game with other supporters!

I think many people are watching U.S. game tomorrow. Enjoy! I hope they will win :-)

My Blog's one year anniversary & Korean Fried Chicken & NKOTB

I would like to start today by thanking everyone who visit my blog. I started this blog a year ago from today. I can not believe that I was able to keep this blog for one year considering the fact that I had never be able to keep a diary.

A year ago, I was feeling very sad and didn't know if I can feel happy again. However, I can happily tell you that I am happier than ever and feels great every day. Back then, I had no idea that I will be feeling like this a year later :-) I appreciate for everything I have and everything I don't have. I am happy. My life is great.

There are many reasons that enable me to get my happiness back. For one, it was the time. Time heals many things slowly but surely. Second, my patient and loving husband who always stood by me and loved me for who I am. Also I appreciate my supportive and caring families in Japan and Germany and my friends who always makes me laugh.

And last but not least, this blog really helped me to bring happiness back to my life. I started this blog because I wanted to do something that I enjoy and make myself happy. The reason I was able to keep this blog for one year is because of you who come to read my blog. It is great to connect with all of you who live all over the world. I am always encouraged by your visits and wonderful encouraging comments you guys leave on my blog.

After I started this blog, I started to cook more and ever time I thought about my blog, it made me very happy. And I get really excited to see the blog visits grow over the year.

So I would like to thank you for being part of my life and bringing happiness to my life. Some people commented that they were inspired or learned something from my blog and that really makes me happy. I hope I am making all my readers happy as all my readers making me happy everyday. SO, THANK YOU! I will continue this blog and hopefully you will continue to support me by visiting my blog :-)

Well, that was a long intro but now I would like to talk about Thursday. I went to Manhattan to go to a concert. Before going to the concert, I wanted to have some snack so I went to this Korean Fried Chicken place called "KyoChon".  Click here for Kyochon's website.

A few years ago, korean Fried Chicken chains started to popping up in Manhattan. It was becoming popular and I always wanted to try but didn't have a chance until yesterday. Finally I got to taste those Fried Chicken!

Since I didn't have a camera, I don't have a photo of chicken. Sorry. But I had soy-garlic flavored wings and drumsticks with chicken croquette. It was quite good and remind me of Japanese fried chicken. However it was nothing special for me and I thought the price is a bit high. Well, it tasted good though so I guess it is OK.

Anyway, after that I went to a concert and enjoyed NKTOB! Do you remember New Kids On the Block? They are the boy band from early 90's.Yes, they are back! When I was a teenager (quite long time ago) I was so into them. I was still living in Japan but went to concert when they were in Japan and had all their CDs. Now they reunited a few years ago and touring so I decided to go this year. It was awesome. The concert hall was full of women who are in their 30's and 40's. Everybody was singing and screaming :-) I had so much fun!

I found this video on You Tube from the Thursday concert. Here you go. Enjoy if you used to like them.


Here is another video. This one is from the 90's. Back in the days.

Korean BBQ in Manhattan and Delicious Financier

I had a dinner again in the city with some of my friends. This time, it was Korean BBQ. We went to my favorite Korean BBQ place in midtown called "Don's Bogam".

I have eaten here many times and their meats are so good. I highly recommend this restaurant for Korean BBQ.

We had Galbi, Tongue, Japchae, pajon and Bulgogi but I only have a picture of Bulgogi because we were so excited about seeing each other and so much into talking, I forgot to take photos of those food :-(

Here is their website if you are interested in, I highly recommend this place. They also have good wine selections.
http://donsbogam.com/

It was so much fun to have dinner with friends. It has been a long time since we had a dinner with this member last time. (One of them were visiting NY from Japan!) We talked a lot about our good memories and what is going on with our life now. It was great to see everybody and catch up.

One of the friends brought me a gift of financier. This is from a good pastry shop called "Financier". I love their cakes but I especially like their financier. Each one of them is small but once you start eating these, it is difficult to stop. They are so good!

Here is the link to their website. I didn't know but it seems like they have 6 locations in Manhattan!
http://www.financierpastries.com/

The place where we had dinner is called Korean Town in Manhattan. There are many Korean restaurants and stores right next to each other. On the way back to the train station, I passed by Korean Supermarket so I went in and bought some of the stuff.

One of them was this coconut cookie. This is something I used to eat in Japan. (At least, I believe it is the same one)

Then, this is a famous spicy ramen noodle from Korea. I have heard about this before and I heard it is really spicy. I wanted to give it a try to see how spicy it is. My sister had it and she told me it was super spicy. I will see....

I had a tea time with the financier I got. I'd better enjoy them slowly otherwise it will be gone in seconds!

I wish I could bake financier this good at home!

The weather is great here in NY. It seems like the temp will go up to 78F (26C) today. Wish you a great weekend!

Korean BBQ in Manhattan

Welcome to 7th Kitchen!

Last night, I had dinner with one of my friends in Manhattan. It has been a while since I met up with her last time so it was really nice to talk to her and enjoy dinner together.

We love Korean BBQ so we wen to a Korean restaurant. Normally, we go to Don's Bogam (32nd st Bet 5th & Madison ave) which is my favorite but last night we went to Woo Chon (36th st Bet 5th & 6th ave). Woo Chon is also really good and I have been there for a few times before.

We ordered Beef tongue and Wang Kalbee. Both of them are really good and they BBQ at your table.

First, we had Kimchi

Then, Beef tongue.

And finally, my favorite Wang Kalbee.

It is so nice to have dinner with your friend. She is very positive person and she always make everybody laugh. I believe that it is very important to have a laugh in your life. It is up to you if you make your life with full of laughter or with full of sorrows and complaints. Even though, it might seem really hard to laugh sometimes when you are in a difficult situation, if you try to force yourself to laugh, I think that the day will come soon that you can laugh from your heart one day. I heard that laughing is really good for your health also. I am trying to laugh a lot everyday. It does not matter what. It can be something really silly but it is good to laugh. Let's try to laugh a lot everyday and if I can make someone laugh on the way, I feel great also :-) I hope this blog brings you a smile sometimes.

By the way, I will be in Japan for a few weeks from this weekend. I will try to update my blog sometimes from Japan but I am not sure if I have time since I have so many things I would like to do in Japan. Including lots of eating! I am excited to report everything I ate in Japan!