Gimbap (Korean Seaweed Rice Rolls)
[Photographs: Vicky Wasik]
Gimbap (also sometimes spelled “kimbap”) is the perfect meal on-the-go, a common sight at bus stations and a must-have at school picnics. The only limit for gimbap fillings is your imagination: You can find tuna, avocado, chicken, shrimp, and bulgogi gimbap. Basically, you can feel free to add whatever you want to the roll. But for this recipe, I’m introducing the most common ingredients for a classic Korean gimbap roll, including imitation crab stick, ham, pickled radish, braised burdock root, egg, carrot, fishcake, and cucumber.
One of the biggest challenges for the first-time gimbap maker is finding all of the ingredients. The pickled daikon (danmuji in Korean) can come as a whole pickled radish that needs to be cut into strips or as pre-cut sticks ready for gimbap. Either works here, but if you do cut your own, you’ll want to make the sticks about 1/4 inch thick or smaller, and about as long as the seaweed sheets themselves. Don’t worry about the color of the pickled daikon radish: yellow, white, beige all work.
At right, pickled whole radish in three colors (beige, white, and yellow). At left on top, braised burdock in its own package. At left on the bottom, a combo pack of pickled daikon strips and braised burdock, ready for gimbap.
The braised burdock is often sold in packages by itself, but you may be able to find combo packs of pickled daikon and braised burdock, which are especially convenient.
For those looking for fishcake (often called odeng or eomuk), the photo below may help you track it down.
A package of fishcake for gimbap.
Ultimately, whatever you use, the key is to prepare it all so that it will work in the roll. That means cutting everything into thin strips that are preferably long enough to run through the roll from end to end, or as close to it as possible.
Fillings for gimbap should be long and thin; generally less than 1/4 inch thick and long enough to fill the roll from end to end.
Published at Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:00:45 +0000
A package of fishcake for gimbap.
Fillings for gimbap should be long and thin; generally less than 1/4 inch thick and long enough to fill the roll from end to end.
