Recipe 1: Kimbap

Are you ready to put all that know-how from the last post into action? No, me neither, but we're going to jump in anyway.

Here's what I'm going to use in my kimbap.

• Rice
• Kim
• Fish Cake
• Ham
• Carrot
• Cucumber
• Burdock
• Radish
• Salt
• Sesame Oil
• Soy Sauce
• Honey

So first things first. If you're using a rice cooker or a pan, get your rice going so it's cooking while you cook everything else. If, like me, you use microwavable rice then cook it later.

Start with the carrots and cucumber (and burdock if you're preparing it from scratch.) They should end up looking a little like this: 

Place the cucumber on it's own plate and sprinkle with a little salt. This is to draw the water from the cucumber. Doing this now means the salt has time to do it's stuff while you prepare everything else. 

Throw the carrots into a pan (though not literally, mind) and add the soy sauce and honey. I do this by eye, a healthy few slugs of soy sauce and just a wee but of honey to take the edge off the saltiness. As you can see, there isn't much in there. Let this simmer for a minute or two. When you're ready, use tongs to remove the carrots from the remaining liquid and put them on their own plate. This may seem like dirtying a lot of plates, but it's better to get as much of the liquid away from both the carrots and cucumber as possible before adding them to the tray of gloriousness you'll see later! 

Time to introduce some more ingredients. Here we have, from left to right, the kimbap ham, pre-scored for all your kimbap needs; the burdock and the yellow radish and the fish cakes. (These are the same fish cakes that are used for ddeokbokki (which also has more romanizations than you can shake a stick at!)

I drain the liquid from the burdock and radish and fire it onto the tray, like so: 

I then slice a fish cake:

Then add everything to the tray. Now doesn't that look like all kinds of yummy!

It's worth noting here that the ham is the only think I keep wrapped up in it's own wrapper and I only remove as much as I will need for that day's kimbap making session. In this case, I'll be making two rolls, so 2 sticks of ham.

In the interest of aesthetics, I'm making this kimbap with white rice and I'm using this tub of microwaveable rice. There are three sizes of these and this is the middle sized one that perfectly makes 2 kimbap rolls, and they're not too big either.  

Once cooked according to instructions (or when your rice has finished cooking) add a splash of sesame oil and a pinch of salt. You don't need to do this, if you don't want too (but I like to.)

Then we get out our seaweed. This is the one I'm using at the moment. If I'm opening a new pack, I use it straight away. I then fire the rest into the freezer. When I take the sheets I need out of the freezer, I wave them over the flame on my gas hob a few times each side, just to get rid of excess moisture (tips and tricks Koreans have taught me!)

And here we are all prep'd and ready to go! 

Spread out the rice. The rice scoop is so useful here and spreads as well as compacts the rice. 

Add your filling. 1 stick radish, 1 stick burdock, 1 stick ham, 1 strip of fish cake and carrot and cucumber to your hearts desire. 

Then use the rolling matt to roll it. Make sure you squeeeeeeze as you go! It should end up looking like the photo below. Then brush the top of the kimbap and the blade of your knife with sesame oil. 

The sesame oil makes cutting the kimbap a smoother job and ideally it will come out all neat and tidy. My initial attempts were far from this neat. Filling splurged everywhere, but practice makes (nearly) prefect.

If, like me, you have a think about pretty dishes, transfer your kimbap. I love how perfect a kimbap dish this is (and so colourful!) And then munch away. 

The remaining filling can be cling-wrapped and put in the fridge ready for tomorrows assembly. And the day after. And the day after. And the day after that. It's also a mighty handy thing to make for lunch on those desk warming days during school vacations, and oh so shareable too! 

If you really want to have a "food of life moment" my CT told me that cold kimbap can be dipped in beaten egg and fried for breakfast. This is, hands down, the best breakfast ever. 

Go forth and experiment, switch up the fillings and find a routine that works for you! Sandwiches, eat your heart out, I have kimbap!