Personally, I love eating Gimbap as I consider it as a heavy snack due to it consist of rice, veggies and meat. It is actually a good to go food for me as I can eat it if I am going anywhere. Let's say I am almost late for my work and I haven't had anything yet. I can just grab a roll of my Gimbap and then I am ready to go. I can eat it while walking and once I arrive at work, I was able to have my full meal course on my way to my destination.
Some of us think that making your own Gimbap is hard and intimidating. I was also intimidated when I first tried making my own Gimbap but It was actually fun making it at home. You will feel the excitement of eating the roll while you are still rolling it. Its funny because I usually buy Gimbap outside or in any Korean store that is third rate as the roll has more rice and minimal fillings.
I tried to make my own Gimbap for the first time because my friend brought her own version at the office and I was like "Saan mo to binili? Ang sarap.", and she told me that it was actually home made Gimbap and she made it herself. I was intimidated at first as I love cooking but I haven't tried making Gimbap because I am afraid that I might fail, but she can make one, so why not make my version too. I usually cook food at home and invent food (hahaha) but I never tried making Gimbap as the process of rolling the rice to the Bamboo mat is intimidating. So, after working hours, we went to the nearest Robinsons Supermarket and she help me find what I need to make my own Gimbap and here is the list.
1. Bamboo Mat - You will need this to roll and shape your gimbap. It is actually ok not to have this but it will make rolling easier.
2. Rice - This is a very important ingredient that you will need in making Gimbap as this is the main ingredient and you can never make a Gimbap without rice because the "bap" in Gimbap means rice.
3. Dried Seaweed / Nori - This is the second most important ingredient. It is actually the same with rice. You cannot make a Gimbap without it because the word "Gim" in Gimbap means seaweed. As you can see, Gimbap is very similar to Japanese food called sushi. It is because Korea was colonised by the Japanese. (I will not discuss the history, only making Gimbap. :x)
4. Sesame Oil - We are not going to fry the Gimbap to Sesame oil but we will use this to season the rice. This will give us the nutty flavor that we are looking for a Gimbap.
5. Cucumber and Carrots - There is actually no rules of making Gimbap filling. As long as you have your rice and seaweed you can put anything on it and then roll. In my Gimbap, I prefer to use Cucumber and Carrots for no reason. I just feel like they need to be there.
6. Crab stick / Meat - Again, there is no rules of making your own Gimbap filling. The filling is for you to decide. In my example for this blog. I will be using crab stick with corned beef but I already tried making Gimbap with Bacon that is wrapped to the Crab stick then I fried it, I also tried using corned beef. Again, you can experiment with the filling it is for you to decide and don't be afraid of inventing food. You can always make small batches to try first, so don't be afraid of making your own version.
7. Eggs - This is included in the recipe of authentic Gimbap but then again don't be afraid to add or remove ingredient to make your own Gimbap. They have 2 ways to add eggs in your Gimbap. 7a) a thin scrambled egg, like paper thin. 7b) egg roll then sliced into strips. I prefer using a scrambled egg in my Gimbap as my goal is to have a full meal for my lunch break at work and less hassle compare to making egg rolls. I am using 1 egg for each Gimbap.
Since that we already discussed the ingredients that we need. Let's talk about the process of making it. It was actually easy. You can make it even without me explaining it once you see the step by step pictures.
First, we need to cook the rice. Add more water as we need the rice to be slightly sticky. While waiting for the rice to be cooked. You can prepare your veggies. Cut your veggies into strips and set aside. Prepare the eggs that you are using to have either the scrambled or egg roll. Right after preparing or cooking your eggs. Prepare the meat. If you are only going to use crab stick. No need to cook it as you can eat it raw from the packaging. Once the rice is cooked and the veggies were sliced and the eggs were scrambled and the meat were prepared. We will now proceed to the crucial part. Hahaha. We are now ready to make a roll.
1. Mix the rice with Sesame oil. There is no measurement. The nutty flavor of Sesame oil depends on your taste.
2. Arrange your work station together with your ingredients.
3. It is time for your Bamboo mat to do the action. :)
On a flat surface. Place you Bamboo mat. (Tip: wrap you Bamboo mat to a cling wrap to avoid rice to stick in between of Bamboo sticks.)
Grab a sheet of dried seaweed. (Note: The shiny part of the sea weed should be facing down or facing the Bamboo mat. So the Rough part will be facing you.)
Put some rice on top of the rough part of the dried sea weed. Make sure that you can cover 3/4 of the nori sheet to make a perfect roll or you can cover the entire sheet of nori. Again, it all depends on you. (Note: There is no exact measurement for the Rice it will always depends on you. In my version, I am always putting 1 cup of rice sometimes 1/2 cup as the Gimbap will serve as my meal for the lunch.)
4. Place the scrambled egg or strips of the egg roll that you make on top of the rice. Followed by the veggies.
5. Place the meat of your choice. You can choose ground meat, crab stick, bacon, ham, anything that you desired to eat. Just be creative. As you can see on the photo below. I used crab stick and sautéd corned beef for the meat.
6. And then roll. I wasn't able to get the picture while rolling it because there is no one I could ask to take a picture of me rolling it. So here is the finish product.
I hope that this article that I made will let you think to make your own Gimbap too. Let me know your insights about my Gimbap so I can try to make one using your idea. Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful Gimbap to everyone.
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