Kimchi & Olive Fried Rice

We had some friends over for sushi yesterday night. We had oodles of fun stuffing everything we loved into maki rolls and ousting each other in virtual tennis on PS3. And then the fire brigade  (if I might add, one of the guys was very hot!) came in to rescue M and our friends who were stuck in the lift when M left to drive them home, with me squatting outside the lift in my pyjamas waiting for them to be rescued. It was a little boring at first, to wait for the firemen and lift engineer to come (thank goodness I had my iPhone 4 to keep me company for 1.5 hours) and then it got pretty scary when the lift kept dropping with every attempt to pry the doors open with six very large hands and a crowbar.  Thank goodness everyone was alright, although they had to be dragged out of the lift to the landing. So our night didn’t end till about 3am and M and I woke up feeling really tired this morning. Walking bleary-eyed into the kitchen, we realised the gravity of what we have done. Again. As usual, M and I were overzealous with food quantities and ended up cooking too much Japanese rice the night before. Our mantra is Waste Not, so even though it is a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon, and it is all very tempting to go out and have some fun, we decided to stay in and make a quick & easy lunch out of the leftovers. Besides, it gave me a good excuse to try out the Nikon D5000 I had borrowed from J. This was my perfect cure to ‘post-traumatic’ stress – a satisfying home-cooked lunch and a chance to dabble in food photography that is a little more professional than what I have done with my Lumix LX3.

Leftover rice is always good for making fried rice. And I decided to make one which had some of my favourite ingredients in it – lots of garlic, crab sticks (leftovers from sushi night), luncheon meat (otherwise known as Spam, but the Ma Ling brand I use is less salty), kimchi for that extra kick and preserved olive vegetables for an earthy saltiness. Might be junk to some, but oooooh it was delicious and incredibly satisfying. Most of all, it was ridiculously easy to make. I made enough for four servings (or two, if you’re hungry), and the extras can be kept for another day to be reheated for a weekday dinner.

Here’s the recipe for my Kimchi & Olive Fried Rice:

500g cooked Japanese rice, left overnight
200g kimchi
170g luncheon meat, cubed
4 crab sticks, cubed
1 egg
1 tablespoon preserved olive vegetables
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Heat vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry chopped garlic on medium heat till light golden brown.

2. Add crab sticks and luncheon meat and fry till lightly browned.

3. Stir in kimchi, followed by rice. Toss the rice till it takes on the colour of kimchi.

4. Stir in egg and preserved olive vegetables, and fry on high heat till rice takes on a drier texture. I like my rice a little charred and chewy, so I fried the rice for a little while longer on high heat. And it’s done!

Easy, isn’t it? You can add anything you want to fried rice, really. Chinese sausages, minced meat, dried scallops, XO sauce, the works. But I really like it with kimchi and preserved olive vegetables, so there.

On a geeky note, I like how the photos are turning out with Nikon D5000. I’ve never used a DSLR to photograph my food, so this is a first and it’s looking a lot better than what my Lumix LX3 can do. Might make a switch, but I think I will need to be more educated on DSLRs and of course, save up for one!

Check out what’s cooking in my kitchen!

Also check out my other food adventures.

*Updated: This post is featured on Foodgawker, Tastespotting and Photograzing. Check out my profiles on Photograzing, Foodgawker and  Tastespotting to see my other featured posts!

 

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