Shrimp & Kimchi Inari

Inarizushi emerged in Japan during the Edo period, when seasoned fried tofu pockets filled with vinegared rice became popular as inexpensive street food. Its name is tied to Inari, the deity associated with rice, agriculture and prosperity, and to the foxes regarded as Inari’s messengers and linked in folklore to fried tofu. Inari, however, has never been Japanese to me. Growing up in South Korea, I knew it as yubu chobap, a meal my mom packed for school lunches and picnics—and one that always felt like a treat. Rather than sushi rice, she filled the tofu pockets with different kinds of fried rice.

Perhaps that is why I have never regarded the pouch as something requiring too much fidelity. Shrimp & Kimchi Inari is my homage to kimchi fried rice, only quieter: shrimp and kimchi folded into rice with less seasoning than I would ordinarily use for the fried rice version. The restraint is intentional. The lighter seasoning leaves room for the fried tofu skin, with its distinctive sweet-savory flavor, to come through.

INGREDIENTS

one cup of cooked rice

eight medium-sized shrimp, diced

a third cup of diced kimchi

two teaspoons of ketchup

two pinches of salt

eight inari tofu pockets

vegetable oil

Heat a non-stick wok over high heat and lightly coat the bottom with vegetable oil. Add rice and kimchi, lower heat to medium, and mix. Add shrimp, ketchup, and salt. Mix and cook until the shrimp turn opaque. Remove from the heat. Prepare the inari pockets as instructed on the package, such as gently squeezing liquid. Open the pockets and stuff them with fried rice. Serve at room temperature.

For this recipe, I used Shirakiku Inarizushi No Moto Beancurd.

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