A Practical Guide to Korean Food and Korean Fusion Food

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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No, it is not a traditional Korean food, but it is quite a simple meal to cook. I’ve been suffering from time consuming dishes lately, so I needed a break. I wonder if this sushi is available in Japan. Kat if you are reading this post, please tell me!
I think, it can be a good picnic meal or dinner party appetizer.

Ingredients for 12 sushi rolls (Big meal for 1 person, light snack for 2 people)

• Freshly steamed white rice for 1 person
• Tuna 250 g (drained of its oil)
• 1/4 an onion
• 3 crab sticks
• 1 cucumber
• Dashi (mix these together) – Vinegar 1 tbsp, Sugar 2 tsp, Salt 1 tsp, Refined rice wine 1 tsp
• Salad sauce – Mayonnaise 3 tbsp, Pepper 4 sprinkles, Salt 4 sprinkles

Preparation

1. Cool down the rice for about 10 minutes.

2. Finely chop the onion, tuna, and crab sticks.

3. Put them into a bowl.

4. Add the salad sauce and mix it well.

5. Peel the cucumber skin off then thin slice the flesh with a peeler carefully. (Thickness about 0.2 cm)

6. Boil the dashi on the pan for 15 to 20 seconds.

7. Pour half of the dashi on the rice and mix it well. (You can add it more as needed.)

Making

1. Wet your hands in cold water then work rice (12 dough ball of rice).

2. Wrap the rice with cucumber.

3. Put the tuna salad on the rice.
4. Serve the sushi rolls on the plate.

Tips

1. When rice seem to stick on your hand, use cold water. (have a bowl of cold water next to you.)
2. The height of rice’s dough ball should be shallower than the sliced cucumber’s height. (to hold the tuna salad topping)

Related Posts

Vegetable kimbap

Tuna Rolls (Chamchi Kimbap in Korean)