Let me start by saying this is not the first explosion I have had in my kitchen, and since we are being honest, it will probably not be my last. However, normally when explosions occur in my kitchen, it doesn't totally catch me off guard....well maybe that is not completely accurate...but the kimchi surprised me!!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with kimchi, it is a Korean salted and fermented cabbage. It can actually be made with a variety of different vegetables, however cabbage is the most common. Back in the day, this fermenting process was used to preserve the cabbage, out of necessity since come to find out refrigerators weren't always a thing.

Now I discovered that kimchi is an explosive device while trying to make Broccoli Fried Rice with Kimchi Cream. I found the recipe in Cooking Light and I decided to give it a try, after returning from a girls wine tasting weekend, in which there was a fair amount of wine and cheese consumption. I decided a vegetarian and light recipe might be a good choice for me tonight.

I also kind of can't believe I am sharing this embarrassing moment, but since you all know way too much about me as it is, well let me just give you another little tid bit. I have always been a little bit on the gullible side or maybe we should just say that nothing surprises me so I accept "facts" without question sometimes too easily.

So early on in my Dispatch career, in the middle of a night shift, one of the Sergeants was in the center. He was talking about his daughter and so I asked, "oh what is her name?" Seems like an innocent enough question, right? Well he proceeded to tell me that his daughters name was "Kimchi." And so of course I repeated it, making sure I got the pronunciation correct because having a unique name I am cognizant of butchering other peoples names. He continued to verify that his daughters name was truly Kimchi and so I went with it....until I met his wife....who mentioned their daughter named JoAnn. You can only imagine my surprise and confusion and he continues to love to tease me about the fact that I believed he would name his daughter after fermented cabbage. Hell stranger things have happened, right!!


Back to the food, the first step in this recipe involves crisping the bacon. The recipe calls for center cut bacon because there is less fat. However, I did find that it doesn't crisp quite as well as regular bacon so my bacon didn't get as crispy as I normally like my bacon. It did still provide good flavor, just not the same texture as regular bacon.


Remove the bacon once it is "crisp" and cook the chopped broccoli in the bacon fat. Cover and cook for 5 minutes and then remove the broccoli.



Next, add sesame oil to the pan. Add the cooked brown rice, green onions and a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. I questioned what that small amount of sugar was for, but I figured I would just go with it because I was too hungry to Google. Yeah that is how you know I am seriously starving because I usually make time for my Google fix.


Once the rice has cooked for 5 minutes, create a hole in the center of the rice and add the beaten eggs. Cook the eggs, stirring often, to form scrambled eggs.

Add the soy sauce, bacon and broccoli back to the pan and heat up.

Now for the fun part, the Kimchi Cream. The Kimchi Cream is made in a food processor and you add mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, Kimchi and Kimchi juice. So, I go to open the kimchi and that is when my kitchen and myself become promptly covered in kimchi. Let me also mention no one ever wants to smell like fermented cabbage. I was standing in the kitchen, laughing, pretty sure I was bringing some serious sexy back to that kitchen!! And just to help with the visual, not only does it spray kimchi juice in every direction, the kimchi also kind of explodes out of the jar, like a swamp monster.

Once I cleaned up my mess, the food processor just mixed all of the ingredients for the Kimchi Cream together and it actually had great flavor. I purchased spicy Kimchi just because I love a little spice.

I actually really liked the recipe. I love fried rice and this was definitely a healthier version as I used brown rice, less oil, broccoli instead of meat and center cut bacon. I am actually feeling pretty darn good about my healthy eating habits in this moment....we aren't talking about the rest of the weekend.


Here is the actual recipe from Cooking Light:

4 center-cut bacon slices, chopped

4 cups chopped broccoli florets

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

2 (8.8-oz.) pkg. precooked microwavable brown rice

1/2 cup chopped scallions, plus more for garnish

1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce

1/3 cup refrigerated jarred kimchi plus 1 Tbsp. kimchi juice

1/4 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon canola mayonnaise

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Enjoy and don't forget to be careful and open the kimchi over the sink. You are welcome!!