How to Make Delicious Kimbap(Korean cuisine)

Kimbap comes in many varieties and can be prepared in countless ways, but today I’ll introduce you to the classic kimbap recipe.
It’s not enough for kimbap to just look pretty; it has to taste good too!
After trying many kimbap restaurants, I realized that the best kimbap shops excel at making the most basic kimbap.

Making delicious kimbap doesn’t require special techniques. The secret lies in the ingredients.
If you prepare only fresh and flavorful ingredients, you can recreate the taste of the best kimbap shops at home.
Kimbap can lose its appeal if even one ingredient isn’t up to par.
With high-quality ingredients, even if your rolling technique isn’t perfect, your kimbap will still taste amazing.

Here are the ingredients I prepared.
While you can use other brands, these are the ones I use often.
For example, I used pickled radish from the No Brand line this time because my usual one wasn’t available. It turned out to be a good choice. Some pickled radish brands can be quite disappointing in taste.

Ingredients

Base Ingredients: Seaweed (kim), Cooked White Rice
Filling Ingredients: Ham, Pickled Radish, Imitation Crab (Surimi), Carrot, Cucumber, Egg
Seasonings: Salt, Sesame Seeds, Sesame Oil, Cooking Oil, Milk

Recipe

Preparing the Filling
For the classic kimbap, I stick to six ingredients: ham, pickled radish, imitation crab, carrot, cucumber, and egg.

Cucumber

Start with cucumbers since they need time to soak in salt.
Slice one cucumber lengthwise into eight strips. Remove the seeds as they release water.
Sprinkle with salt and let them sit for about 30 minutes.
Once ready, rinse them once and squeeze out the excess water.

Carrots

Julienne the carrots and stir-fry them lightly with a bit of salt and cooking oil.

Ham

Fry the ham thoroughly until it’s slightly crispy, as this enhances the flavor.

Imitation Crab (Surimi)

Be gentle with surimi as it can fall apart if cooked too long. A quick stir-fry is enough to release its aroma.

Pickled Radish

Squeeze the water out of the pickled radish until it’s dry.

Egg

Prepare a thick egg roll using about 5 eggs (this recipe makes 10 rolls of kimbap). Cut it into 10 strips.
To make the egg roll softer, add about half a cup of milk to the eggs. However, avoid adding too much milk as it may make rolling difficult.
If you have a rectangular pan, you can use it instead of rolling the egg.Please refer to my posted recipe for Gim Gyeran-mari (seaweed egg roll). If you leave out the seaweed and use only eggs, you can make a plain egg roll instead.

Preparing the Rice

Season the rice with salt, sesame seeds, and sesame oil, and mix well.
Since the fillings are already seasoned, you don’t need to add too much salt to the rice.

Rolling the Kimbap
You don’t necessarily need a bamboo mat (kim bap) to roll kimbap. You can do it by hand.

Spread the rice evenly over the seaweed. Make sure the rice distribution is uniform.

Arrange the six fillings on top of the rice.

Roll the kimbap tightly, pulling from both the center and edges to ensure it’s firm. Even without a mat, you can achieve a tight roll by pulling firmly.

Slice the roll into bite-sized pieces and plate them.