[Taste of Hansik] Rice, an egg and a little magic make a classic Korean comfort food

One of the simplest yet heartiest foods in Korea is egg mixed with rice. As long as you have cooked rice in a rice cooker at home, there's nothing simpler than frying an egg and putting it over the rice, mixing well with soy sauce and digging in.

Chef Jason Oh of Seoul-based Nam Yeong Chicken recreated a version of the egg rice dish that is a familiar comfort food for many Koreans. Some food companies even introduced a special soy sauce that pairs very well with eggs and rice to prove how popular the dish is.

Not all quality home-cooked meals have to be made completely from scratch. To enjoy Korean food at home with minimal time investment, a variety of pre-made food packages will come in handy. This time, what cuts down the cooking time is microwavable rice. The Korea JoongAng Daily introduces this recipe from chef Oh of Nam Yeong Chicken.

Oh takes gim, another staple ingredient many local Koreans use at home, to make a puree to add more flavors to the simple egg and rice.

Ingredients

One pack of microwavable rice, 10 grams of butter, one egg yolk, gamtae (seaweed), 20 grams of onion flakes, 50 grams of gim (seaweed) puree

Ingredients for gim puree: 100 grams of gim (seaweed), 10 grams of sesame oil, 100 grams of canola oil, 10 grams of chili oil, 5 grams of gukganjang, or soup soy sauce

Instructions

Put all the ingredients for gim puree in a blender and mix well until it all turns into a liquid form, and set aside.

Heat up microwavable instant rice, following the directions on the package.

When the rice is cooked, put it into a bigger bowl.

Put butter in the center of the rice and cover with the rice so the heat melts the butter.

Add gim puree to the bowl and mix everything well together.

Take out a plate or bowl and arrange the mixed rice with an egg and onion flakes. Put hand-torn gamtae on top.

BY LEE SUN-MIN [lee.sunmin@joongang.co.kr]