sheet pan pineapple fried rice

recipes

Nov 11

the countdown to my trip officially starts now. t-7 more days until i can frolic in the streets of new york and see my closest friends! being the obsessive planner that i am, i created a spreadsheet of how i plan to spend every waking hour on my holiday break. the top things on my list: holding my friend emily’s newborn baby, isabel mei, or having a quiet thanksgiving dinner in a cabin in the woods. my stomach hurts and my heart flutters just at the thought of being back in new york city.

for lunch today, i took the last remaining bits of the gamja tang i made and used the broth, meat, and vegetables for the base of a soulful fried rice. just so you know, if you actually plan on making gamja tang and storing the rest away for more than a day, i highly recommend the following pro gamja tang storage tips:

remove as much vegetable (napa cabbage and potatoes) from the pot. the vegetables will soak up the $$$ broth and you will be v v v sad. so store them separately! :)
the broth and meat can hold up in the fridge for a week+ since the fat congeals, which in turn preserves and allows the broth to stay in good shape for a lot longer than you think. if it looks gelatinous, it hasn’t gone bad! all you need to do is throw it back on the stove, reheat, and it’ll turn back into that delicious stew you once knew.

my mom called me last night and asked if i planned on consuming the entire pot of stew to myself. and the answer is, duh. i mean, i won’t have it all in one sitting, but over the course of a few meals, it’s really not that challenging to chip away at something that is so comforting and hearty. when it came down to the last centimeter of broth in the pot, there were delicious remaining bits of “dregs” (an sat word i learned and never used again until now) chock full of stewed pork meat, collagen, and spices packed with so much flavor. that centimeter would have been a sad portion for another gamja tang serving, so i thought to use it to flavor the base of a fried rice!

…and it’s going to be a pineapple fried rice of course. pineapple is my absolute faaaavorite fruit in the whole entire world (peep the pineapple accessory on my dutch oven) and i’m always so delighted when it’s served in a savory way like in chinese/thai fried rice or served as a cold slaw with pulled pork. my mom told me that pineapple also helps digest protein, so i in fact did it for #health.

and the sheet pan? i did it for the crisp. you can do this on your frying pan, but the sheet pan has so much more surface area to flatten the rice out as much as possible to get even more crispy rice. that is all!

xo, christine

it took me a total of two hours to prepare and jar the kimchi, which isn’t so bad knowing that i have time, it’s way more economical than paying $25 for a large bag of kimchi at h-mart, and that there’s nothing beats the taste of homemade kimchi. it can be daunting making it alone for the first time without your mom or eemos (aunts) guiding you through the process, and i can assure you from first hand experience that stuffing spicy paste between cabbage leaves for an hour was definitely a lonely one. the time was still well spent though because i thought about all the times i participated in the rituals of making kimchi (gimjang) at home with my umma, eemos, halumunis, and unnis and i sent my love to them from my los lonely brooklyn island.

pro-tip though, if you end up crying, do not wipe your tears using your hands. getting gochugaru your eye is probably the worst thing that can happen to you when you’re filled to the brim with sappy thoughts.

xo, christine