Cooking with Rich - Gimbap

Hello hungry readers and welcome to Cooking with Rich! I will be making a delicious and artistic Korean dish: Gimbap. So what is Gimbap? It's basically rice with other vegetables and meat wrapped up in seaweed. It takes a lot of time to prepare all the ingredients first and then you'll have to make it by rolling the ingredients together. I learned how to make this dish from my Mom already so I was able to use that knowledge and incorporate some of my own techniques on making this.

Some may say that Gimbap can be served as a snack rather than a meal. I can see why they would think this since it can be compared to any finger picking food. I would say Gimbap could be served either way depending on how many you eat. I could eat enough Gimbap where I become extremely full that I feel sick a little bit. Think of Gimbap like eating a bowl of rice with mixed vegetables and meat, except it's all compacted into a bite size roll.


Prepare all the ingredients first.


Ingredient #1: Egg. Be sure to have the egg white and the yellow yolk separated. The reason why is to make it colorful.


Ingredient #2: Sausage. I'm being cheap so I used hotdog sausages instead. To be honest, it's my first time using this type of meat for Gimbap.


Ingredient #3: Carrot. Just to add more color and to make it a bit crunchy.


Ingredient #4: Spinach. It's not necessary to add this but I wanted to make as much ingredients as possible. You have to boil the spinach first and then drain all the water from the spinach as much as possible. Next you add sesame oil and seeds and mix together to give it flavor.


Ingredient #5: Yellow Pickled Radish. This is a must have for any Gimbap. Not only it's crunchy, but it's also better to serve it cold too. I think without this pickled radish, eating Gimbap would be too soft to eat.


That's it, all the ingredients has been cooked and prepared to add them together.


Cover the seaweed wrap with small layer of rice. Then add all the ingredients and start rolling.


Be sure to tighten the roll a bit so the rice will stick together.


Once you secure the roll tight where all the ingredients stays together, you are ready to cut.


There's a few tricks on how to cut it into rolls smoothly. If you put too much pressure as you cut, you'll end making the roll lose its round shape. You'll have to move the knife back and forth slowly and let the blade slice down for you.


After that, you are ready to serve. It takes a lot of time and preparations to make Gimbap isn't it?