When I was a little girl, my parents would frequently load us three girls up in the station wagon and take us on road trips. If it was summertime this meant cross-country treks for weeks-long vacations. If it was fall, it frequently meant a two-hour drive north to where fiddlehead fern (a favorite Korean bahn chahn) grew wild and we would pick bags and bags of it. And then there were the church outings where dozens of Korean families would get together for the day at a park to eat, play games, and catch up with friends they hadn't seen since the service the day before.
Road trips always meant we would be eating kim bop in the car. Kim bop is the Korean version of maki sushi (and not a boy band, like The Geek originally thought). I could write this posting using Japanese terms but would prefer to use the Korean terms because there are things about this preparation that are distinctly Korean. This requires a translation lesson since readers are probably more familiar with Japanese sushi than Korean kim bop.
| Japanese Term | Korean Term | Description |
| Nori | Kim | Sheets of dried seaweed, typically called roasted laver in English, that are used in making sushi. The Korean version is roasted and then brushed with sesame oil and sprinkled with salt before storing. |
| Sushi | Bop | In Japanese, 'su' means vinegar and 'shi' refers to rice although in English we use the term to refer to the rice and raw fish together. Bop is the Korean word for rice (regular, plain, cooked rice) |
| Maki | Kim Bop | Maki is sushi that is rolled up around the raw fish and fillings (as opposed to nigiri, which is the little cake of rice with raw fish on top). Kim bop is the generic name for Korean rolled-up sushi. |
Back to my story... Kim bop is the perfect car food. My parents did not cut up the rolls like in my picture at the beginning of this post. They wrapped two or three of the uncut rolls in foil to make individual servings and then, in the car, we would pull out a roll and just bite into it. Because kim is flavored with sesame oil and salt, kim bop does not need to be dipped in soy sauce. They were filled with steamed vegetables, fried egg, pickled radish, and (before my parents became vegetarian), salty, stir-fried beef - all ingredients that kept for several hours without refrigeration. It is also great picnic food and at those church gatherings, there would be piles and piles of kim bop with different fillings that we kids would grab off the table on our way from one play area to the next.
These days I make vegetable kim bop and California rolls frequently for dinner. People have told me I make THE BEST California rolls ever. (Of course those people are my kids and The Ex, but that does not make it any less true in my mind.) Tonight I decided to make kim bop and since cold weather has set in, something hot, namely dumpling soup.
Here's how I make it. By the way, I would not recommend using this recipe or method if you're trying to impress Korean in-laws. Making true kim bop (and maki, for that matter) is an art and one I have not mastered.
Gather your ingredients - amounts listed here are for approx 4 rolls or 2 servings
2 cups freshly cooked Korean rice, which is a medium grain rice4 Tbsp sushi seasoning or seasoned rice vinegar
2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds4 sheets kim (or nori, if that's what you have available)
1 pkg imitation crab1/4 to 1/2 c mayonnaise (optional)
1/2 cucumber, peeled and julienned
1 avocado, cut into slices
1 egg, scrambled and fried into a flat pancake
1 carrot, julienned and steamed
Takuan (Japanese pickled radish) julienned (optional)
Soy sauce, wasabe, and ginger are optional
- Mix the rice with the sushi seasoning (or seasoned rice vinegar) and sesame seeds.
- Flake or cut up the imitation crab into small pieces and mix with the mayonnaise.
- Put a sheet of kim on a cutting board or other clean, dry, flat surface.
- Spread about 1/2 c rice in a thin layer over a sheet of kim, working very gently so as not to tear the seaweed.
- Place the fillings lengthwise down the middle of the rice-covered kim. Use crab, cucumbers and avocado for California rolls and fried egg, carrot, cucumber and avocado for the vegetable rolls. I don't use the takuan because my kids don't like it.
- Carefully lift one of the long edges of the kim and fold over the fillings. Continue rolling, making as tight a roll as possible while being careful to keep the fillings contained and not tearing the seaweed.
- Cut in half or eight pieces and serve with soy sauce, wasabe and ginger, if desired.
Usually I make miso soup with tofu to go with this meal but was in the mood for something a bit more substantial. I had some Ling Ling frozen chicken dumplings in the freezer so I heated up chicken stock, added mushrooms and onions, and boiled until they were tender. I parboiled the dumplings in a separate pot, just until thawed and slightly warm (this step removes a lot of the starches that would cloud the broth) and then added them and some frozen corn and edamame to the soup pot. It was ready to eat once everything had heated through. Easy peazy.
Busy Mom Modifications and Tips
- True sushi rice is not the same as the rice that is eaten as part of an everyday meal. To make sushi rice, soak it for several hours and then rinse until the water runs clear (to remove the starches). It is cooked in a little less water than normal resulting in a slightly drier texture. These steps make the the rice a little less sticky. I don't bother with these time-consuming steps since I cook rice by the potful and freeze whatever I don't use to eat at a later time. I just sprinkle on enough sushi seasoning to achieve the texture I want.
- If you have a bamboo sushi mat, I'd recommend using it as it results in a tighter roll that is easier to cut and less likely to fall apart when you pick it up. Wrap the mat in plastic wrap (to simplify clean-up) and then lay over the kim bop after you have rolled it. Squeeze up and down the length of the roll.
- You can leave out the mayonnaise if you're trying to cut back on fat, but I wouldn't recommend it. It adds a yummy dimension to the flavor.
- Adding the frozen corn and edamame at the end helps keep them crunchy and fresh-tasting, one of the hallmarks of Asian soup.
- Some other kim bop filling ideas include lightly cooked spinach, strips of stir-fried portobello mushrooms, and lightly steamed asparagus.
- Parboiling the dumplings in a separate pot is an extra step that really is not necessary for flavor but essential for making a "clean" soup, as I discussed in yesterday's post. You can put the frozen dumplings into the soup pot either with the mushrooms and onions or immediately after. Just make sure the soup is at a full, roiling boil before you drop them in.
- The garnish on the soup in the picture are the leftover carrots and egg from the kim bop.
The Results
The Geek raved about both dishes.
Ratings
- Difficulty: medium. The difficulty comes in first, multi-tasking all the different ingredients so that you can eat in a reasonable amount of time and second, it takes a little practice to get the rolling part down.
- Time to prepare: One hour for the sushi, fifteen minutes for the soup.
- Prognosis: Both are keepers
- Avocado (3, saving 2 for another day): $3
- Tortilla chips: $3
- Hot house cucumbers (4): $8
- Fresh dill: $2
- $2 on something I can't for-the-life-of-me remember what
The day's tally: $18
Total this week so far: $18
Total this month, to date: $18
*P.S.
Due to a recent spate of turkey sandwiches, I am out of chips and pickles. I will be making refrigerator B&B and dill pickles while happily munching on nachos tomorrow.
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