Anything But Corn-Fed: Healthy College Cooking in Rural Iowa

I’ve made this a couple times this week before coming across its real name: kimchi bokumbap. I don’t have an exact recipe, but I heated toasted sesame oil in a skillet, sauteed diced onion until soft, added Paul’s Grains brown rice (and sometimes other vegetables from my CSA like eggplant and kohlrabi), added tamari, and then added kimchi to the skillet just until warm. After emptying this into a bowl, I would fry an egg, usually breaking the yoke and cooking that a little too since I don’t really know how to fry an egg. The egg goes in the bowl too. I added peanut sauce a couple times as well and found this superior to the straight up Korean version. You can use any kind of oil, I just like toasted sesame flavor. This meal was entirely local (either from my CSA or Paul’s Grains) except for the oil, tamari, and peanut sauce and is a good way to incoroporate kimichi into a dish. In most Asian recipes, it is more authentic to use white rice. The only reasons I can think of are that white rice keeps a lot longer than brown rice and that people like the taste and texture better. I prefer brown as it has more nutrituonal value.

Last time I posted that you ought not buy kimchi from the store. This was a false claim. Since then I have found kimchi that I believe still has macrobiotic cultures. Investigate for yourself, but I standy by homemade kimchi has superior in flavor.