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
- Place one laver on the bamboo mat.
- 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.)
- Put the two perilla leaves in the centre of the rice. (Facing each other)
- Put two carrot sticks, 2-3 spinach leaves, some tuna, mayonnaise on top.
- On top of that put the crab stick, ham, burdock stick, yellow radish, and egg stick (all one each).
- 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).
- Once you have made rolls, paste the other half of the seasoning onto the laver surface and slice them.
- 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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Kimbap (Sushi Roll)
Your sushi is rolled so nicely and I love all the ingredients you put into it!
Every time I see kimbap, it just reminds me of picnic.
Your kimbap is so nicely done. Fancy giving Kimgane a run for their money?
Your kimbap looks very pretty. I made vegetable kimbap the other day and it turned out very well. Thanks for your recipe. Kimbap becomes one of my favorite food for lunch. I really think you have a lot of cooking talent after I try your recipes.
There is one thing I would like to ask is if koreans use pork to make bulgogi. Do they still call bulgogi or there is some other names for it?
Hey, good job! Lots of patience there. I just bought my tuna and guess will only make sandwiches from it.
Yum! Chamchi gimbap! Thanks for the great recipe! Your rolls look great. I can’t wait to try this!
Kat, Thank you.
Equinox, it does remind me of a picnic too.
baobaighost, Thanks for your compliments. I am still learning it too.
I was confused about bulgogi, when Koreans say bulgogi, most of the time, it is marinated beef. “Bulgogi” means baked marinated meat, so it can be used with other kinds of meat (according to a Korean encyclopedia). When it is beef, we specify it as so-bulgogi (”so” means cow), when it is pork, we call it Dwaeji-bulgogi.
tigerfish, it might look a bit complicated, but once you get used to it, it is quite simple.
You should try making this meal with your tuna. 
Cat, Thank you. I hope it turns out well for you.
Sue,
I’ve never had the courage to make these until I saw your beautiful pictures. I had most of the ingredients to make the Chamchi Kimbap, they were delicious. My husband isn’t too fond of the seaweed taste but he said they were Good! The first one was too full, not a success. The rest I put less in them and I found it much easier to roll them. We’ll be having these again real soon. Great recipe. Thank You.
Hi Lucas Kajok,
I really love tuna rolls and believe me! it wasn’t very easy to roll the first time for me too. Same as hoddeok. The first hoddeok I made wasn’t very good looking either. Anyway, it’s good to hear that you and your husband both liked it.
Hi Sue
Me again! This is the 3rd time I’ve made them and have improved a lot with rolling them, trying to master it. I’ve been mixing the mayonnaise into the tuna to help it stick together (less chance of it falling out of the ends) and it cuts out one step of squeezing the mayonnaise along the tuna roll. Our son (almost 3yrs) loves these and can eat 1 whole tuna roll without a problem….he loves your recipe.
I haven’t had the chance to make this yet, however I was wondering if you had a recipe for kimchi kimbap. I don’t know the combinations of certain ingredients with the kimchi so it never comes out the way I want it to. Do you think you can help me?
I really wanna try it o(T.T)O~ , the thing is i don’t have [yellow pickled radish strips] i guess the taste is missin’ ~/(_o_;)\~
I wondered if I could keep the kimbap in the fridge and be eaten the next day. What i mean is (for example)….. I wanted to make kim bap for my breakfast the next day. So instead of making kim bap at morning…can I make it at the night before and store it in the fridge. It will be convenient but will the taste run?