During my vacation last July, one of my friends Josephine,
invited me and our other friend Joyce to eat in Ye Dang, a Korean restaurant
located in Pasig City. It was my first time to eat in a
Korean restaurant and I find it so exciting knowing and tasting Korean foods. I
was amazed by how they prepare their foods with a lot of side dishes (mostly
veggies) around.
I can’t get over the taste of the foods and wanted to go back to
the place. But of limited time, we were not able to go back there and eat once
more. So my craving started again :) I started researching for Korean foods online and found Kimbap challenging to prepare (perhaps because I'm not Korean). Based on my research, Kimbap is Korea's version of Japanese Sushi. There may be slight difference with the ingredients but the preparation and presentation perhaps are nearly the same.
My version of Kimbap!
Had seen several recipes online, I decided to prepare like the one below considering also the availability of the
ingredients around. It took me several weeks to look for a bamboo mat only to
learn that an alternative approach could be possible – that is by using an
aluminum foil to wrap and press the seaweed instead. I read that there can be
several fillings for Kimbap but I tried these ingredients below.
Ingredients:
4 pcs Roasted seaweed
Rice
2 cups of cooked rice
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp salt
½ tsp roasted sesame seed
Fillings
½ kg ground beef
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 ½ tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white sugar
Sesame oil
1 medium sized carrot, julienned
226 gms spinach
6pcs crab sticks, sliced
2 eggs
What you need:
Small and large pans
Bamboo mat
Strainer
Measuring cups
Kitchen brush
Procedure:
Marinate the beef
In a bowl, combine the ingredients for beef which are garlic
powder, soy sauce, sugar, and 1 tsp sesame oil
Set aside to marinate
Prepare the spinach
Add the spinach to salted boiling water and let it boil for
30 seconds.
Drain and wash over cold tap water
Squeeze all the excess water with hands
Transfer to a bowl and add 1 tsp of sesame oil and salt to
taste
Mix well and set aside
Cook the carrots
Heat 1 tsp of olive oil in a pan
Sauté the carrots in
Add salt to taste
Transfer to a bowl and set aside
Prepare the eggs
Crack 2 eggs and add salt to taste
Heat a large pan and cook the egg until it turns golden
brown
Flip the egg to cook the other side exactly the same as the
other
Transfer to a plate and cut into strips
Set aside
Cook the Meat Fillings
Cook the crab meat in medium heat
Slice into strips
Set aside
Heat a large pan on medium heat
Add cooking oil and fry the marinated beef until cooked
Transfer to a bowl and set aside
Mix the rice
Place the cups of rice into a large bowl
Add 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp salt, and the roasted sesame
seed
Set aside
Combining them altogether
Use a bamboo mat as a base and a tool in rolling
Place a sheet of seaweed, shiny side down over the bamboo mat
Starting from the bottom spread some rice evenly filling
almost full of the seaweed (giving allowance to the seaweed)
Fillings should start with an inch allowance at the bottom
and ends with two inches above (never occupy the entire rice in adding the filling)
Put two slices of egg first at the bottom and top to serve
as the border line :)
Add beef at the center
Put carrots and spinach above the beef
Top it with crab meat
Rolling the seaweed sheet
Starting from the bottom, using the bamboo mat, roll the seaweed
slowly
The first roll should set the excess seaweed where the
excess rice is, to stick the bottom of the seaweed to the rice.
Gently push as you roll the bamboo mat over the kimbap until
you reach the top of the seaweed
Squeeze firmly to make sure the entire kimbap is tight
Brush with sesame oil
Transfer to a chopping board and using a sharp knife, slice
the Kimbap into half inch
Serve with soy sauce mixed with wasabi paste (other dipping
sauces are available of your choice)
