Making 김밥 (again)

This post is exclusively about time spent with my family.  I had a blast sharing this experience with them. :)

When my family came to visit, I set them up with a Korean crash course.  To make it extra special, my Korean teacher threw in a lesson on making 김밥.

The Egg Master, doing his thing.

We even got Dad in on the action.  He's mixing the tuna into a tuna salad sort of deal.  I found that fitting, considering that his mom makes the best tuna salad on the planet.

Frying the ham.  (No, I did not partake.  My friends have heard my ham lecture enough times; I don't need to bombard them with it again here.)  

Cutting the egg into strips

One roll done, and we're excited to eat!

One roll done.  "It's not a burrito."

Attempting to slice them.  (I'm no good at it either.)

김밥 Recipe

So, many people asked me for recipes from Korea.  Unfortunately, Koreans don't seem to be too into cooking.  Letting things go bad (excuse me... ferment)? Sure.  Cook/bake?  Not so much.  That being said, I've discovered the Korean answer to sushi (although you should never make that comparison here.  My teacher wouldn't even acknowledge a correlation): 김밥 (Gimbap), which literally means "seaweed-rice). Anyway, if you're confused, click on the title of this post (that blog does a great job explaining it, so I don't feel the need to).

Most of this recipe is preparation, which I would estimate about an hour for.  My suggestion?  Make these suckers in bulk... they're great for sharing with a group.  Of course, if you keep a decent stock of prepared ingredients, then you can just make yourself a roll here and there when you're hungry.

Things you're going to need:
-Aluminum Foil
-김 (It comes in packages that look like this and looks like this when unwrapped.)
-White rice (and cooker)
-Sesame seed oil (although I imagine any kind of cooking oil will do)
-Salt
-Pickled radish (a staple in Korean cuisine)
-Every Korean will put in some ham/SPAM strips, but I leave them out.  It still tastes fine.
-Imitation Krab meat
-Eggs
-Cheese (I'd recommend cheddar or Monterrey jack... Koreans will use what they call cheddar, which is really just sliced American cheese.)
-Sesame leaves
-Canned Tuna
-Mayo
-(pepper... I prefer red pepper powder)
-Kimchi
-Spinach
-Or really... anything else your heart desires.

Preperation:

1. Wash the rice 3 times (fill bowl of rice with water, swish it around with your hands until the water looks like milk, drain the water, repeat).  I don't know why, but just do it.  The water looks pretty gross as you do it, so I'd say it's rather important.
2. Get the rice cooking.
3. Cut the ham and Krab into long, cubed strips.
4. Fry the ham.
5. Cook the eggs into thin omelets, and cut them into strips when they are done.
6. Wilt the spinach.  Combine it with sesame oil (until it looks slightly slimy and a bit gross).  Salt to taste.  (I actually like this a lot.
7. Cut the cheese into thinner strips.
8. Mix tuna, mayo, salt, and pepper to make a BASIC tuna salad (no extras).
9. Rip the stems from the sesame leaves.
10. When the rice is done cooking, separate some out into a bowl, add just enough oil to make it sticky.  Salt to taste.

Procedure:
1. Lay the 김 on a piece of aluminum foil, and spread the sticky rice across 2/3-3/5 of it.

2. Add your toppings: Stick items first, wet items last.  (Should you choose the tuna mixture, you should lay down two sesame leaves first).  I would recommend never leaving out the pickled radish, as it adds a crunchy texture and a sweet flavor that offsets everything else nicely.  Use the kimchee similarly to wasabi.

3. Roll everything up, but stop just before the end to add a line of sticky rice to act as glue.  Then roll everything up, pressing firmly on the seal.

4. Brush on the top a light coating of sesame oil to ease with cutting, and cut into pieces.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, but, just in case you don't... here's another one that's a bit more Americanized.

My entire Korean class.

<3  Happy eating.

(And leave me a comment if you try it out!  I want to know what you think!!!)

They gave me a fork.

I went to a workshop the other day that my city so nicely arranged for all of the Native English Teachers (NTs) on how to better flow with society and all-in-all be a better teacher.  I found myself resonating with my kids at the thought of being four hours in a lecture setting, but I tried my best to refrain from doing the exact things for which I scold my students.  (Side note: I thought that working in the food and retail industries gave me a better idea of how to respect people... good gracious!  That's nothing compared to teaching!)  But let me be honest, I feel so touched that these people went out of their ways to make our lives easier.  With the way America's economy is going, it's not like Korea will have any shortage of young people who are willing to come and teach in their schools.  Our bosses could very easily let us make our mistakes, fire us, replace us, and take themselves out to a rather extravagant dinner.  Instead, they brought in a speaker who was doing this for 30ish years before being stationed in Korea by the US Government to specifically work with NTs, and then our superintendent provided ALL of us with a gargantuan buffet dinner.  I'm beyond touched.

That being said, I have an amusing anecdote for you:

Upon arriving at the dinner, I put my things down, and grabbed my plate, spoon, and... ... FORK.  At first I was confused by its presence in my life, then I got a little excited.  A FORK!  I could see the possibilities of eating with speed and dignity.  So I got my food and returned to my table, where the first thing I did was drop the thing from not holding it correctly.  As if that wasn't bad enough, I seem to have forgotten that lesson that my mom so painstakingly drilled into me: how to eat noodles with a fork.  Alas!  I could not get them from my bowl to my mouth.  I'm choosing to blame it on the fact that the dish in question was a very Korean dish, complete with soup, so the noodles themselves preferred chopsticks, which appeared shortly thereafter, much to my delight.  And then, the sad but true fact unfurled: It is now easier for me to eat with chopsticks than with a fork.

And here I was, thinking that was a myth.  Sounds like I've got a little bit of KDS (and, admittedly, a hard time swallowing fan death) going on myself... (I've been reading up on what The Korean and The Expat have to say on that little problem.)  I have, however, found the perfect solution to this problem, but you'll have to click on the title of this post to find out what it is.  :P

Finally, as per the request of Ms. Malcolm, I'm leaving you with some more cultural media, which just so happens to be entirely related to this post, as it is a clip of a local student who came to our workshop to play the Tanso (also written as Danso, because the ㄷ letter in Korean actually falls between D and T).  Once again, I am thoroughly impressed by the willingness of these students to give up their valuable study time to come and preform for us.  I hope you enjoy as much as I did!