Kimchi butter shrimp
Butter and kimchi make a pan sauce in about ninety seconds. Have the rice ready.
At a Glance
Story
Kimchi brine is what makes this a sauce rather than butter with things in it. The acid and the salt in the liquid clinging to the leaves hold the melting butter in suspension, so it stays creamy in the pan instead of separating into a greasy layer. Drain the kimchi hard before it goes in and you lose exactly the thing doing the work.
Ingredients
- 10 oz shrimppeeled and deveined
- ½ cup long grain white rice
- 2 cloves garlicroughly chopped
- ⅓ cup kimchiroughly chopped
- 1 oz salted butter
- 2 tsp gochujang
- 6 oz carrotsthinly sliced on an angle
- 10 oz baby bok choyroughly chopped
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- neutral oilsalt, pepper
Method
The rice cooks with garlic in it and is worth the small extra step. Everything else takes about eight minutes at the end.
- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and drain it. Into a small pot with the chopped garlic, a big pinch of salt and 1 cup of water. Boil, then cover and drop to low for 13 to 15 minutes. Off the heat, fluff, cover.
- Medium pan, the sesame oil and a drizzle of neutral oil, medium-high. Carrots in one layer, undisturbed 2 to 3 minutes. Season, add the bok choy, then 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until it wilts. Into a bowl under foil. Wipe the pan.
- Pat the shrimp very dry and season. Same pan, a drizzle of oil, medium-high. Shrimp in one layer, undisturbed, 2 to 3 minutes, until the edges turn opaque.
- Butter, the chopped kimchi with whatever juice comes with it, and as much gochujang as you want. 1 to 2 minutes, stirring, until the shrimp are through and everything has come together glossy. Off the heat.
- Garlic rice into bowls, vegetables, then the shrimp with all the pan sauce. Sesame seeds over.
If the sauce looks broken, a teaspoon of water off the heat and a hard stir usually brings it back.
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