Kimbap _ Tuna Kimbap

 How to make a roll of kimbap

In Korea, there are tons of different types of kimbap. There was a franchise kimbap restaurant called 'Kimbap Heaven' some years ago. Literally now Korea is the heaven of kimbap as kimbap is getting so much popularity not only in Korea, but world wide. 

Today I made rolls of tuna kimbap for my church potluck. Because most of my church members are vegetarians, I used veggie crumbles (Morning Star) instead of tuna. 

To make kimbap rolls, cooking rice is very important. You need to use sticky rice. Most of rice sold in US supermarkets are not sticky rice. So, I usually buy jasmine rice rather than regular white rice. And I use pressure steamer for cooking rice. By doing so, rice increases its stickiness. 

<Ingredients for 3 rolls of kimbap>

Two cups of rice

4 eggs to make egg rolls

1 carrot

two cucumbers

3 sliced strips of yellow dakan

1/2 package of 'Morning star' veggie crumbles

3 lettuce leaves (I only used leaf part after removing stem part)

a pinch of salt

a pinch of pepper

1.5 table spoon of mayonnaise

a tea spoon of sesame oil

1. Rice is cooked, take it out of the cooker and let it cool down for 3-5 min. The proper amount of rice for a roll of kimbap is two scoops by rice ladle. 

So, one role of kimbap can be a good enough for a meal. 

After cooling down, add a pinch of fine salt and one tea spoon of sesame oil and mix it. 

2. Prepare inner stuff of kimbap. The typical inner stuff for kimbap are yellow dakan (radish), spinach, carrot, sausage and fried egg. This time, I prepared yellow dakan, fried egg, carrot, cucumber and veggie crumbles mixed with mayonnaise. 

3. Slice carrots thinly and fry them lightly with salt and oil. Making 3 rolls of kimbap, 1 carrot is enough. 

4. Slice cucumbers thinly. Mix them with salt for 20 min. And then squeeze them with gauze to remove water. I used two cucumbers for 3 rolls of kimbap. 

5. Make egg roll. I used four eggs. Mix egg with a pinch of salt and fry them with oil. Pour egg onto a fry pan evenly. As it gets cooked, I rolled it from one side to the other to make it a roll. 

I put only 2/3 egg into fry pan first. As rolling egg, I add the rest of egg (1/3) to the side to make a roll bigger. 

This big giant egg roll will be cut into long pieces. I cut them into 1cm or 0.5" thickness. 

6. Thaw frozen veggie crumbles first. And then mix it with mayonnaise and pepper. I used a half package of Morning star veggie crumbles. 

If you use tuna, just mix a package of tuna with 1.5 table spoon of mayonnaise and a pinch of black pepper. 

7. Now everything is ready to roll. I arrange them on the table before rolling a kimbap. 

8. Place a sheet of gimme onto the open bamboo mat. Put the rougher side facing up. 

And place the rice evenly onto the gimme. 

9. Place the veggie crumbles on top of the rice. I wrapped the crumbles with lettuce to prevent juice leaking out of the crumbles. 

10. Place other stuffs too. The order doesn't matter. 

11. Then roll them all together. Here are the videos. Because of file size, I uploaded them into two files.

In the video, I applied grains of rice to close the kimbap. Or you can spread more rice close to the edge of kimbap. But not to the very edge of gimme, then when you roll it, rice will stick out of gimme. 

12. Apply sesame oil to knife and the surface of the kimbap roll before cut it. Then it will help easier smooth cutting. 

I forgot to take a photo of this tuna kimbap, instead here is another type of kimbap I made later. This is curry flavored egg roll + cucumber kimbap. Absolutely very very delicious. 

I will upload this recipe later, too. 

Finito~ 

Enjoy~!