Here's How To Make Zero-Effort Kimchi Pickled Eggs

I've had pickled eggs on my mind lately, bolstered by a recent brunch cocktail with a beautiful specimen perched on top. I figured out a cool hack over the weekend by being lazy two ways. First, by eating all the kimchi right out of the jar and not buying another, and second, by being totally unwilling to spend a weekend morning pickling eggs.

Compromise: I boiled a few eggs (here's how) and halved them. Then I added a lengthy glug of rice vinegar and half a teaspoon of sugar to the three or so inches of juice left in the kimchi jar, and shook it up to combine. I dropped the egg halves in the jar, swirled them around and let them sit in the fridge for the rest of the weekend before using a couple to garnish my Sunday morning salmon donburi (which I realize is Japanese, not Korean). The whites took on a pleasing pink-orange hue, the yolks became creamier and more flavorful and the whole thing just reeked SO GOOD that I finished off the jar without replacing it, as is my style.

So if you can boil eggs and finish most of the kimchi, kimchi pickled eggs are right around the corner. Plop them on top of ramen, stuff them in a sandwich with a little Japanese mayo or use them to garnish a rice bowl like I did in the photo up top. They'll stay good (and get more delicious) for a week.