Kimchi Bokum Bap, or What I Did With the Favas

I stepped outside today to find my neighbors were walking slowly, gazing with wonder at their surroundings, and speaking quietly or not at all. Temperatures near the century have not just transformed the city; they may have transported us into an alternate universe—a contemplative and gentle place where I’d almost be willing to stay if it weren’t so dang hot.

Should you find yourself in a universe where slow and deliberate behavior is possible, you might want to get hold of a bunch of fava beans. Fresh favas are delicious, but it is only with great patience that you will persuade them to yield up their pleasures. First, you need to split open the pods and get the beans out of their cozy, fluffy little beds. Then, depending on the recipe and the size of the beans, you might want to peel the soft, thick seed-coat off each little fava. For the recipe that follows, you will want to peel the beans for the sake of color and flavor.

This week I had seven ounces of fava pods, or 36 beans, from my CSA. I used them to provide the finishing touch to my first-ever kimchi bokum bap (kimchi fried rice), made with my first-ever homemade kimchi. Thanks to my kimchi-preparation efforts, not to mention my considerable waiting-for-the-kimchi efforts, I had about six cups of some deeply powerful kimchi. So far the kimchi had performed admirably in supporting roles (it turns out to go very well with pizza), but bokum bap has kimchi at its very center.

Kimchi Bokum Bap

peanut oil or other oil

1 largish onion, sliced into half-moons

A few leaves qing tah tsai, ta tsoi, or other green vegetable, optional

4 cups cooked short-grain rice (I used brown rice)

2 cups kimchi

36 fresh fava beans, peeled (or beans from 14 pods, about 7 ounces before shelling), or the same amount of English peas (“popping peas”)

Heat the oil in a wok or sauté pan. Add the sliced onions and cook until translucent. Add the greens, if you are using them and stir for a minute or two more. Next add the cooked rice, kimchi, and peeled fava beans, and cook, stirring until heated through and a little bit crunchy. Hardly any cooking time at all.

If you have not seen it yet, or even if you have, check out this utterly swell kimchi-instruction site from Pyonyang Metro.

More “arfs” for the dog days at Sweetnicks.

Food and Drink, Recipes, Cooking, Food, Vegetarian, vegetables, vegan, antioxidant-rich foods, favas, fava beans, decortication, kimchi, kimchi bokum bap, kimchi fried rice, kimchee, Korean cuisine