Adventures of Juice and Tea: Cooking Attempt #25: Korean rice roll (김밥)

Korean rice rolls are like sushi in that they have rice and nori, but no raw fish. Instead we use cooked ingredients, so that we can take it to picnics. It's like the standard snackables for any outdoor gathering and every family in Korea has bamboo rolls at home.

I had to guesstimate how much of each ingredient to prepare, because it's difficult to match it with how much rice there is. I made about 3 ricebowls worth of sticky rice and the following:

1 carrot
3 small hotdog sausages
1 bunch of spinach
2 eggs
daikon - I found ones that were already cut into long thin slices
8 sheets of plain, unroasted nori

These are standard ingredients. They're all colourful, so that it looks pretty. Some people use Korean barbeque or canned tuna with mayo, but those are hard to work with. I would have used some artificial crabmeat, but I like my rice rolls to be thin. If you use too much in each roll, then they become unwieldy and burst easily.

So, first I cut the carrot into long thin chopstick-like pieces and the sausages lengthwise into 4 pieces. Then I put the skillet on medium heat with some sesame oil. While that was heating up, I whipped up the eggs. I cooked the eggs like the time I made the egg blanket for omuraisu and then folded it in half when it was half cooked so that it was thick enough. Then I removed it from the skillet and cooked the carrot and sausage. Those were also removed and then the spinach was cooked until it was soft and stringy.

The rice should be removed from the cooker as soon as it's done and transferred to a bowl with a spoonful of sesame oil and a pinch of salt. This should be stirred so that it's coated evenly and left to cool. The rice should be lukewarm when you start to spread it on the nori. If it's too hot, then the nori will rip because it's too moist.

Spread rice thinly on the bottom 2/3 of nori using a rice spatula. A few grains should be stuck to the top edge to help the whole thing stick when it's rolled up. Take each slice of ingredient and pile it up neatly on top of one another 2cm from the bottom edge.

The rolling takes a bit of practice. You have to hold the ingredients as you fold the bottom edge over so that it meets the rice on the other side of the ingredient pile. Then press down to make sure that it's stuck and keep rolling firmly. Once it's been rolled, roll it again using the bamboo roll squeezing evenly with both hands.

Once the rolls have cooled down some more, take a clean dry knife and start cutting using long back and forth motions. The knife will start to get sticky from the rice residue, so have some hot water handy and a paper towel to wipe it off.

I made 8 rolls. That's about 3 servings. ^_^ It was soooooo yummy! This picture shows about 3 rolls' worth.