Kimbap

What is more convenient to eat than kimbap when you're studying and have no time to cook? Kimbap is a type of Korean rice roll simply made of lightly seasoned rice, egg or a kind of meat, and vegetable slices that are all wrapped in a sheet of seaweed. Of course, there are countless variations as to what you put in them. For me, I like to put in 5 ingredients; egg, spinach, carrots, cucumber, and fishcake. Alternatives to try are pickled radish, beef/ bulgogi, imitation crab; be creative! Though it will initially take some time to make, you can make them by the bulk and save time in the long run!


Ingredients:

4 cups cooked rice (short grain white rice)
1 pack seaweed sheets
2 whole eggs cooked, sliced into long strips
1 carrot, sliced thinly
1/2 pound spinach, parboiled
2 cucumbers, thinly sliced
1/2 sheet fishcake, sliced
vinegar sauce for rice: 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 tsp rice vinegar, 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sesame oil, sesame seeds
fishcake sauce: 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, pepper to taste, 2 tbsp sesame oil




Directions:

1. Cook rice and let cool slightly. Then add vinegar sauce to rice, mix well.
2. Stir fry carrots with a dash of salt.
(optional: stir fry cucumber or can be left uncooked)
3. Fry eggs into flat pancake and slice into long strips.
4. Blanch spinach and add little sugar, sesame oil, soy sauce for taste.
5. Cut fishcake into 1/2 inch width long strips. Cook fishcake sauce, add fishcake to absorb sauce.
6. Lay the seaweed sheet with the shiny side facing down on the bamboo sheet roller. Evenly spread out half a cup of rice onto seaweed so that 2/3 of the sheet is covered, leaving the top 1/3 bare.
7. Lay each ingredient on top of rice.
8. Roll from the bottom up, pressing down so that fillings stay in. Continue to roll till the top part. Dab a tiny bit of water along the top seam of the seaweed to hold the roll together.
9. Give the roll a final squeeze and slice into 1/2 inch rolls (each roll can yield 7-8 pieces).

**Tip**
Use clingwrap over rolls for easier slicing.