Gimbap

This is, for me, a Korean comfort food. I grew up eating this and every time I have some, it brings me back to being a little kid! I love that I can make this for my son and nieces now! I usually serve it with soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds but if you want some of that wasabi heat, you could always throw some in! You can pretty much put anything in Gimbap, this is just my take on it. Those of you who like pickled daikon, should add some. It's not my favorite. 

Ingredients (this makes 8 rolls, feel free to half if you don't need this many)

4 cups of short grain rice (cooked in rice cooker or instapot)
8 sheets of fish cake (you will have leftover fish cake for snacking!)
8 pieces of fake crab (squeeze out water and half them)
8 eggs (cook two 4 egg omelets in a 10 inch skillet)
8 sheets of nori (seaweed)
2 bunches of spinach
sesame oil
4 cloves of garlic (smashed and diced)
3 green onions (diced)
3 carrots (peeled and julienned)
vegetable oil
kosher salt
pepper
toasted sesame seeds

Gimbap recipe

Cook rice however you make steamed rice. Wash the rice twice. I use an instapot and do 4 cups of water to the 4 cups of rice. A traditional rice cooker, you may want to do 1.5 cups of water per cup of rice.

Heat up some vegetable oil and toss the julienned carrots with a pinch of salt. Toss 1-2 minutes until carrots are a little tender.

Wipe out the pan and use it to cook the fish cake. Cook the sheets of fish cake 1 or 2 at a time (depending on pan size) and cook each side til they are browned a little bit.  Be careful not to overcook. Cut the sheets into thin strips. 

Boil a pot water and throw in your washed spinach and cook til the spinach is blanched about 1 to 2 minutes. Dump into a colander and rinse under cold water. Squeeze out as much water as you can. Throw spinach into a mixing bowl, throw in some sesame oil, add some salt, chopped green onions, and diced garlic. Mix together and set aside. 

Throw some vegetable oil into a 10 inch skillet and beat 4 eggs (add some salt and some pepper) and then toss into the skillet. Swirl and take a rubber spatula to adjust the edges so that the omelet cooks evenly. Flip and cook on the other side as the egg sets. Repeat with the other 4 eggs. Put finished omelets on a cutting board and cut into thin strips. 

Squeeze fake crab to get excess liquid out. Cut each in half and set aside. 

Put together a gimbap building station. Put enough rice to cover about 80 percent of a nori sheet and put a few pieces of rice on the end to act as glue to seal the gimbap. Toss some toasted sesame seeds on the rice, add two half pieces of fake crab, put 2 to 4 strips of fish cake, add some of the julienned carrots, add some of the spinach, and add 1 to 2 strips of omelet, and roll that baby up. I think it helps if you have a bamboo sushi roller. Cut into bite size pieces and dip in some soy sauce with toasted sesame seeds! Delicious! Enjoy!