Today is Secret Recipe Club reveal day! I was assigned Searching for Spice, written by Corina – a mother of two (I love the nicknames she gives her kids: Little Miss Spice and Master Spice). She loves international cuisine, making food from India, Mexico, North Africa, Thailand, and China. She prefers to stick to recipes that aren’t terribly time consuming – like this Italian Chicken and Lemon dish, this Lamb Meatball dish, and this Chicken Pie. But sometimes, she will go for a more complicated recipe, too – like this Chicken Biryani and this Cassoulet with Confit Duck.
I ended up choosing this Korean Bulgogi recipe, because I just recently discovered Korean BBQ, and it is awesome! Bulgogi is definitely my favorite thing to order, so I loved that Corina had a recipe I could try. She served it with rice and lettuce to make wraps, I decided (inspired by my Spam dish) to make it a rice bowl, topped with a fried egg. It turned out great! (more…)
I had always thought that spam was super gross and never had any interest. But as I became more aware of the different cuisines of the world, I noticed that there were a few that really (REALLY) love spam. So when I saw spam musubi on the menu at my favorite local cafe, Megabytes, I decided to try it. You guys – spam is delicious! It’s like ham plus bacon plus sausage all in one. I’m kind of obsessed now, like bought-a-case-at-Costco obsessed. No, processed meat is not good for you; but as a special treat in the place of bacon or sausage, it’s not going to kill you (probably). Especially if you buy the low sodium kind, which I prefer.
Anyway, pressing musubi seems like a lot of work, and I am more of a freeform girl; so I decided to make a rice bowl for my first spam experiment. I cooked short grain rice and topped it with furikake seasoning, then seared spam, fried eggs, seaweed, scallions, and toasted sesame seeds. It. Was. Awesome. I wasn’t sure that Jasper would be into it, but he loved it, too, and wants me to make it all the time!
Spam and Rice Bowl
serves 2-4
1 1/2 cups dry short grain rice (I use Botan)
2 cups water
1/4 cup furikake seasoning (check your labels, not all furikake is gluten free)
1 can low sodium spam, sliced into 8 slices
4 eggs
salt and pepper
toasted nori
scallion greens, sliced
toasted sesame seeds
Combine the rice and water and cook according to directions, usually simmer covered for 20 minutes, then let stand for 10 (I use a rice cooker). Fluff with a fork and add the furikake seasoning, you can start with less and more to taste, if you wish. Set aside.
Meanwhile, sear the sliced spam on each side in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat. You won’t need any extra fat, and you may have to work in batches. Set aside.
Pour out most of the fat from the pan, then return to medium heat and fry the eggs you your liking. I prefer sunny side up. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
To assemble divide the rice among the desired number of bowls, top with the spam, then the eggs. Sprinkle nori, scallions, and sesame over the top. Enjoy!
