Chamchi Kimbap is my favourite type of Kimbap. It has a savory taste and the smell from perilla leaves (Korean style sesame leaves, ggaennip) and tuna is just well balanced. I haven’t made it myself until today though, I did a pretty good job I think. I have learnt well from Kimgane.

Ingredients for 7 rolls (it serves 4 people)

Main ingredients

• Laver 7 sheets
• 4½ cups of steamed short grain rice
• Tuna 250g
• 7 yellow pickled radish strips
• 7 long sticks of seasoned edible burdock root
• 7 sticks of BBQ Kimbap ham (Kimbap ham is made for Kimbap. It is easy to slice.)
• 4 crab sticks
• 4 eggs
• 4 stalks of spinach
• 1/2 a medium carrot
• 14 perilla leaves
• Some mayonnaise

Seasoning (mix these in a bowl)

• Sesame oil – 1tbsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp
• Sugar – 1 tsp (I used dark brown sugar, the only sugar I have in my kitchen)
• Vinegar – 1tbsp

Prep

• Cut the roots off from the spinach, rinse it and parboil it in boiled water. (For 1 minute)
• Drain the water, and put the spinach into a bowl. Add 2 sprinkles of salt and 1 dash of sesame oil on the spinach then mix it well.

• Beat one egg in a bowl. Fry the egg in a pan and make the egg stick by rolling it. (it rolls well when it is 60-70% cooked) Repeat this with the rest of the eggs.

• Cut the crab sticks and egg rolls in half. (Length ways, they will give you a total of 8 sticks each, but we will need only 7 each from them. So you can have spare ones if you are hungry.)
• Cut the carrot into long thin slices. Make 14 sticks of it. We will use 2 carrot sticks per Kimbap.
• Take out the rice from the rice cooker or pot. Add 1/2 of the seasoning on the rice. Mix it well. (The rice needs to be cooled down a little bit.)
• Cook the carrots, crab sticks and BBQ ham in a pan with a little oil. (You can use un-cooked fillings, but I prefer cooked ones. When I cook these I prefer the order in the following picture, that way I can use one pan without washing it.)

• Rinse the perilla leaves.
• Put all the ingredients on one or two plates (depends on the size of the plate). It makes organized rolling.

Making

1. Place one laver on the bamboo mat.
2. Put the rice on the laver. You need to spread it thinly and fast, otherwise the laver get soggy. Leave the top 10% of the laver empty. (To spread the rice, I use my fingers and rice spatula. Have a bowl of cold water next to you to rinse your finger tips when the rice sticks on your fingers too much.)
3. Put the two perilla leaves in the centre of the rice. (Facing each other)
4. Put two carrot sticks, 2-3 spinach leaves, some tuna, mayonnaise on top.
5. On top of that put the crab stick, ham, burdock stick, yellow radish, and egg stick (all one each).
6. Lift the bottom end of the laver to cover the ingredients, once you cover it then roll it. (Paste some water at the edge of the laver, if it doesn’t stick).
7. Once you have made rolls, paste the other half of the seasoning onto the laver surface and slice them.
8. Serve it on the plate.

My chamchi Kimbap was very delicious, like some luxurious Kimbap restaurant. It was also cheaper to make 7 rolls of chamchi Kimbap myself than buying them from a Kimbap shop, because 1 chamchi kimbap is 2500 won at Kimgane, so I made 17,500 won (US $18.40) worth of Kimbap today for less than half the cost for the ingredients. What a bargain!

I hope you enjoy having this chamchi Kimbap.

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Related posts:

1. Vegetable Kimbap
2. Tuna Salad Sushi Rolls
3. Beef Kimbap and Tuna Kimbap from Kimgane (Sogogi Kimbap and Chamchi Kimbap in Korean)
4. Traffic Light Kimbap
5. Spring Rolls in Laver (Gimmari in Korean)