Korean Spring Rolls 'Kimbap' Recipe

Korean kimbap are rice rolls that look a lot like sushi. Traditional fillings for kimbap include seasoned vegetables, egg, meat and/or imitation crab, but these days anything goes. Kimbap fillings range from cheesy to spicy to fresh. Kimbap is like the Korean version of a sandwich—you can change the filling to fit any diet, palate, or occasion.

Basically, gimbap is a seaweed rice roll made of gim (a sheet of dried seaweed) and bap (rice).
For fillings, you can use chopped kimchi if you’re in a hurry, or make a classic gimbap like I do in this video. This recipe uses many colorful ingredients: carrot, eggs, danmuji, spinach (or cucumber), and beef. It takes a little longer to prepare. You can replace spinach with salted cucumber sticks, carrots with crab sticks (or sliced and sauteed red bell pepper), and beef with sausage or ham.

This recipe is a very authentic, classic style gimbap that I used to eat and make all the time. Gimbap can be made with all kinds of fillings, and I like almost all of them, except for a few like mayonnaise. I like mayonnaise in my potato salad and in my sandwich, but not in my gimbap. I just don’t like the greasy texture.

Lets Try ..

What You'll Need :

• 4 sheets seaweed (dried, nori)
• 2 cups rice (cooked)
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 tsp. salt

• For Traditional Kimbap Fillings:
• 1 carrot (julienned)
• 1 cucumber (cut into long strips)
• 2 eggs
• 8 oz. beef (bulgogi)
• 1/2 lb. of spinach (parboiled)
• 5 pickled radish (cut into strips)
• Optional: imitation crab
• Optional: fishcake

• Alternate popular filling suggestions:
• Smoked salmon and cream cheese
• Kimchi and cheese
• Spam, mayo, and veggies
• Ham and cheese
• Tuna salad with romaine lettuce and cheese 

How to Make :

1. When rice is almost cooled, mix with sesame oil and salt.
2. Stir-fry carrots briefly with a dash of salt.
3. Stir-fry cucumber with a dash of salt.
4. Whisk eggs until evenly yellow and fry into flat omelet.
5. Cut cooked egg into long strips.
6. Cook bulgogi according to recipe directions.
7. Using a bamboo sushi roller or a piece of tin foil, lay the dried seaweed shiny side down.
8. Spread about ½ cup of rice onto 2/3 of the seaweed, leaving the top 1/3 bare. If you moisten your fingers or a spoon to pat down the rice, you'll get less of a sticky mess.
9. Lay the first ingredient down around 1/3 of the way up from the bottom of the seaweed.
10. Lay the other fillings down on top.
11. Roll from the bottom (as if you're rolling a sleeping bag), pressing down to make the fillings stay in.
12. As you continue to roll, pull the whole thing down towards the end of the bamboo mat.
13. Spread a tiny dab of water along the top seam to hold the roll together.
14. Set aside and continue with other seaweed sheets.
15. Cut each roll into 7 to 8 piece