Kimbap Korean Rice Roll Recipe ✪ Japanese & Korean Recipes

Serving(s): 1

Ingredients

Cabbage Kimchi *	50 gr
Carrot	1 Piece
Nori *	5 Piece
Round-Grain Rice (cooked)	300 gr
Sesame Oil *	3 Tbsp
Spinach	100 gr

Equipment

Rice Cooker *	1 Stück
Sharp Knife *	1 Stück
Sushi (Bamboo Matt) *	1 Stück

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Recipe Information

Vegetarian:	no
Vegan:	no
Lactose:	no
Gluten:	no
Calories:	~ 300
Difficulty:	2/3
Country:	koreanisch
Category:	Hauptgericht
Preparation:	40 Min.
Cooking Time	20 Min.
Total Time	60 Min.

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Index:

Gimbap (Sometimes spelled Kimbap) is the korean rice roll and is made from Gim (Dried laver seaweed sheet), Bap (Steamed rice) and various other ingredients or vegetables. Gim and bap are the two basic components of Gimbap. That’s why it is called Gimbap. Actually there is no rule or limit as to what to put in Gimbap. You can put whatever you want and you just customize your own gimbap. That’s why gimbap can satisfy picky eater, vegetarian or meat lover. It is for everyone. Gimbap is really healthy and it is easy to transport and carry around. You can enjoy gimbap with danmuji (yellow pickled radish), kimchi, doenjang-jjigae soup or any other side dishes.

When is the best time for serving Kimbap?

Gimbap is one of the most popular korean foods. It is a typical picnic and going-out food in Korea. We all grew up on these beautiful picnic memories, isnt it? In Korea you can find a lot of different gimbap restaurants around the corner very easily. You can even find gimbap on 24 hours convenience store. It’s bite-size so it’s really delicious, easy to eat and looks amazing with beautiful colors. Gimbap is like a Korean version of sandwich, so you can enjoy gimbap as a snack or light meal. Gimbap is also suitable food for every occasions , so you can find gimbap easily even when you go to fancy korean wedding buffet or special occasions meal.We can enjoy gimbap with some side dishes or kimchi or danmuji (yellow picked radish) and miso soup or Doenjang-guk (Soybean paste soup). But we can also enjoy gimbap without any side dishes. We normally don’t eat gimbap with any particular dipping sauce so it’s really convenient to eat gimbap without any dipping sauces.

Check out our Kimbap Cooking Video

What is the different between Kimbap and Sushi?

You can think Gimbap is Korean version of Sushi but sushi and kimbap is totally different, so if you come to Korea, you better not confused between sushi and kimbap. Both rice rolls are using the short grain rice. But the differences already start with the preparation itself. Sushi rice is seasoned with rice vinegar, but gimbap rice is usually seasoned only with sesame oil, some salt and sesame seeds. Regarding fillings, Japanese sushi mostly use raw fish such as tuna, salmon, scallops for fillings. While Korea Gimbap use a lot of different fillings.

Fillings for Gimbap are usually cooked or preserved ingredients such as canned tuna, kimchi, grilled bulgogi, ham, cheese, fish cake, imitation crab meat, carrot, danmuji (yellow picked radish), spinach, lotus root, seasoned burdock, mayonnaise, egg and so on. But as you know, there is no strict rule regarding Gimbap ingredients so there are hundreds of different kinds of gimbap exist in Korea.

Short List of different Kimbap

Here i listed some well-known gimbap

야채김밥(Yachae, vegetable gimbap)
불고기(Bulgogi gimbap)
소고기 김밥(Soegogi, Beef gimbap)
참치김밥(Chamchi, Tuna gimbap)
치즈김밥(Cheese gimbap)
날치 알 김밥(Fish egg gimbap)
충무김밥(Chungmu gimbap)
계란김밥(Egg gimbap)
누드김밥(Nude gimbap)
김치김밥(Kimchi gimbap)
돈까스 김밥(Donkkaseu, pork cutlet gimbap)
삼각김밥(Samgak gimbap)
마약김밥(Mayak gimbap)
샐러드김밥(Salad gimbap)
조김밥(Weonjo, classic gimbap) is the most common gimbap in Korea

Mayak Gimbap — Mayak Kimbap is a small kind of gimbap with one or two ingredients only

What are the best Kimbap ingredients? / How to make Gimbap, Kimbap?

Gimbap is delicious, healthy, filling and it is easy to carry around. It is even easy to pack. Some people wrap up the whole gimbap roll with aluminum or paper foil or some people slice gimbap as bite-size and then wrap with aluminum or paper foil or put gimbap to pretty lunch box. Actually making this amazing gimbap is not that difficult, we just need some time to prepare for gimbap. There are a lot of variations to make gimbap but I will focus on most basic ingredients for classic gimbap.

We need Gim (Dried laver seaweed sheet) and bap (Steamed rice) for sure to make gimbap. To make gimbap, the rice is rolled in seaweed with various fillings. Fillings are also very important to make gimbap, but basic ingredients such as gim and bap are the most important ingredients for gimbap. If you want to make delicious and the best gimbap, focus on basic ingredients. Also you should use some devices, to get the best gimbap-results :)

Rice - Prepare the rice in this way

For Bap (rice), normally use short-grain white rice but you can use short-grain brown rice, black rice or other grains can also possible to make gimbap. We can cook rice using a little less water than usual and fresh cooked rice is the best for gimbap. The rice is lightly seasoned with sesame oil, salt or ground sesame seeds mixed with salt. I normally add the sesame oil and salt while the rice is still hot. Therefore you can use a large spoon or rice scoop, paddle to mix all seasoning with rice. You can taste the rice and check whether it’s evenly seasoned or not. If you think it’s not tasty you can add more salt. The rice has to be cool down to make gimbap.

I recommend you to use a rice cooker or a pressure pot. The rice should be cooked perfect. With a rice cooker you really dont have any problem to get the best cooked rice with lowest effort :)

The best fillings for gimbap

Fillings for Kmbap — Easy prepared Fillings for my Kimbap

Lets use canned tuna, kimchi, grilled bulgogi, ham, cheese, fish cake, carrot, danmuji (yellow picked radish), spinach, lotus root, seasoned burdock, avocado, perilla leaf, mayonnaise, fried shrimp, cucumber, crab meat, crab stick and egg and so on. It can be really diverse depends on what kind of gimbap you want to make.

For most classic gimbap, we need some vegetables and eggs, fish cakes for fillings. We need spinach or cucumber, carrot, fish cake, danmuji (yellow picked radish), eggs, ham, crab stick and seasoned burdock. For spinach, we need to blanch the spinach and place immediately in the ice bat and then squeeze out water. Then season the spinach with the sesame oil and salt. For carrot, you must pan fry with lightly oiled pan over medium high heat. You can lightly season with salt. For fish cake, you also should pan fry with lightly oiled pan over medium heat. You can lightly season with salt and soy sauce. For ham and crab stick you can pan fry as well.

For Danmuji and seasoned burdock you just can purchase pre-cut package for gimbap. For eggs, you should make egg garnish, which is common topping in Korean cuisine. Fry some eggs and make a thin sheets of eggs without browning and then cut into thin strips for gimbap. It is very easy, just use low heat. Cut the egg into thin and long stripes. The egg gives the kimbap a beituiful color as well:) As you know, ingredients can be varied depends on what you want. So some Korean people just use leftover vegetables on refrigerator to make gimbap.

The important seaweed layer - Gim

(Slightly-roasted dried seaweed), gim sheets are toasted over a low heat. You can decide how many gim sheets you want to ready for gimbap. You also can purchase these Gimbap Seaweed Layers in any supermarket. It is also called as "Nori" (japanese Name for this seaweed layer).

This devices you should use for making gimbap

Gimbal

We need gimbal, which is a bamboo gimbap roller better known as normal bamboo mat. The gimbal is also use for rolling japanese sushi rolls and you can apply a gimbal also for the japanese sishi variation.

The toasted gim is laid on gimbal with a thin layer of cooked and seasoned rice placed evenly on top. Other ingredients and fillings are placed on the rice and rolled into a cylindrical shape. You can brush the roll with a little bit of sesame oil for extra flavor and shiny look. You can apply a little bit of sesame oil to a sharp knife so it will help to keep rice from sticking to the knife. You can also sprinkle ground sesame seeds over gimbap roll to beautiful look. We usually prepare rice first and then keep rice to rice cooker. And then we prepare fillings. There is no particular order to prepare fillings so feel free to make your own gimbap.

Rice Cooker

As i already mentioned above, a rice cooker is very helpful, to cook the rice perfectly. This kitchenware doesnt cost much money and you can use it everytime you like to eat the best rice. So dont waiste your time and your gimap, get a rice cooker :)

Different kinds of Gimbap, Kimbap - Explanation

There are hundreds number of variations in gimbap. You can make your own gimbap by adding different ingredients, different seasoning or by making different sizes and shapes. If you come to Korea you can find gimbap very easily. You can find gimbap restaurants all around the corners and you can even find gimbap at 24 hours convenience stores. Here are the most popular styles of gimbap variations.

Tuna Gimbap 참치김밥

Tuna Gimbap is very popular gimbap in Korea. It’s made with Tuna salad but its Korean style of tuna salad. You can find Tuna gimbap either gimbap restaurants or convenience stores. We use seasoned tuna to make tuna gimbap and Tuna is usually mixed with mayonnaise so it’s really soft. We add perilla leaves when we make tuna gimbap. Tuna and perilla leaves are perfect combination.

Kimchi Gimbap 김치김밥

You can guess how to make kimchi gimbap by gimbap name. Kimchi is main ingredient for kimchi gimbap. We can enjoy classic gimbap with kimchi but if we put kimchi inside gimbap we don’t need any extra side dishes for gimbap. We normally use sour kimchi (Napa cabbage kimchi) for kimchi gimbap. Spicy and crunch kimchi can make gimbap much more tasty. You should squeeze all the over-fermented sour kimchi juice before using for gimbap.

Nude Gimbap 누드김밥

We called nude gimbap as inside out gimbap. Nude gimbap made with rice on the outside instead of the inside. And the gim is inside. We think gim is kind of clothes or cover for gimbap. Any other ingredients are same as classic gimbap just the location of gim and rice is different. All we need to do is layer the bap (seasoned steamed rice) on the gimbal (bamboo gimbap roller, we put very clean plastic bag to gimbal to prevent rice stick to gimbal) and then place seaweed on top of it. The seaweed is then layered with the fillings and then rolled to make the Gimbap. It’s really pretty with classic gimbap so we make both classic gimbap and nude gimbap for beautiful lunch box.

Samgak (triangle) Gimbap 삼각김밥

Mostly you can find Samgak gimbap at convenience store in Korea. Kimbap made in the shape of a triangle that’s why we called it Samgak (triangle) Gimbap. Samgak Gimbap usually contains just only one filling like seasoned pork, tuna, Kimchi and so on. It’s perfect for someone who doesn’t have enough time for eating. You can just grab Samgak gimbap and go. Samgak gimbap is really good with ramen. I think ramen and Samgak gimbap is the perfect combination for convenience store meal in Korea.

Egg Gimbap 계란김밥

Egg gimbap can be another variation of classic gimbap. We can slice the classic gimbap and then lightly fried with an egg coating. So basically we can make egg gimbap with egg wrapped around the outside of seaweed. We normally need to finish gimbap within one day but if we can’t finish we keep gimbap on fridge. After that we need to make it warm again using pan fry, that time it is the perfect time to make egg gimbap.

Pork cutlet gimbap 돈까스 김밥

We can make Donkkaseu gimbap very easily with classic gimbap. We can just add one more ingredient, pork cutlet to classic gimbap. Voila! You can enjoy juicy and crunchy pork cutlet gimbap.

Chung-mu Gimbap 충무김밥

Chung-mu Gimbap is originally from the seaside city of Chung-mu (Currently Tongyeong city). It is really easy to make it. It is small sized gimbap rolls made with just seasoned rice and gim (Slightly-roasted dried seaweed). Surface of gimbap is usually left unseasoned. It is usually served with spicy side dishes such as seokbakji (radish kimchi) or ojingeo muchim (squid salad).

Petal Shape Gimbap 꽃 모양 김밥

Petal shape gimbap is the classic gimbap with a little bit of twist! Taste is same as classic gimbap but shape is much more beautiful than classic one. You don’t need to roll the gimbal (bamboo gimbap roller) when you make petal shape gimbap. We just need to fold the gimbal (bamboo gimbap roller) and press it down. We need to make sure ends of the seaweed have to meet. And then cut the gimbap with even size. You can see delicate and beautiful petal shape gimbap.

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Preparation

First you need to prepare the rice for gimbap. The korean gimbap rice is not same like the rice for making sushi. Let the fresh cooked rice cool down for a while. The only seasoning is sesame oil, some salt and some sesame seeds. These three ingredients you can use and mix into the rice. You can decide how much from each ingredient you want to use. Just Taste it :)
Prepare all the fillings you would like to add. Appropriate products are carrots, radish (korean pickled radish), thin beef or meat, kimchi, perilla leafs, tuna, sauce (mayonaise for example) and many mores. The main Step is to cut the things into thin and long strips, that you can easily put into the gimbap roll.
After preparing the rice and the fillings you should start with the rolling. Therefore put the seaweed sheet with its shiny site on a bamboo mat, add one tablespoon of the rice mixture and spread the rice into a thin layer on 7/8 of the seaweed sheet. The empty space should be on top, this part will be the connector at the end.
Add your wished fillings now. First, start with salad or perilla leafs and add the long vegetable strings. Better dont add to much fillings, because u probably cant close the gimbap roll clearly.
When everything added, start to roll. Hold the end of the roll and start to roll first with your hands. First, exert some pressure to the roll. Finish everything with the bamboo mat to create a beutiful and equal gimbap roll. Dip one finger in some sesame oil and spread it over the empty seaweed part. The sesame oil is like glue and keep both ends together.
Exert more pressure usng the bamboo mat and start to roll another kimbap.
Cut the rolls into two fingers thick parts and serve.

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