Yawna kimbap – Smoked salmon rolls

salmon kimbap

A delicious combination of smoked salmon, yellow radish, cucumber and avocado rolled up in a sesame flavoured rice roll.

I was going through the fridge looking for some inspiration and lo and behold I found all the ingredients for a fabulous kimbap! My brother-in-law had smoked me some salmon, my mom had given me avocados before they left on a trip and I always have yellow Korean radish and cucumber on hand. Lucky for my yobo, since if I ever ask what he wants for dinner he always says “kimbap!”

Now you might be thinking, “aren’t these sushi rolls?”  They obviously are very similar with a few distinct differences. One of them being the seasoning for the rice; kimbap utilizes sesame oil and salt to flavour the rice while Japanese rolls use sushi vinegar. Another distinction is the ingredients; kimbap tends to have more ‘stuff’ in them and they usually include of pickled yellow radish.  I must admit though that the avocado is not very authentically Korean 🙂

So if you haven’t given kimbap a try, here is your chance!

Yield: 10 rolls

The things you need:

  • 8 cups cooked sticky rice (4 cups uncooked = 8 cups cooked)
  • a package of kim, seaweed or nori sheets (10 pieces) I just buy what is on sale.  I am not too picky!
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 a cucumber
  • Korean pickled yellow radish (see pic… available at Asian markets)
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 fillet of smoked salmon

The prep:

  • cook the rice.  I used 2 cups white and 1 cup brown this time (trying to be healthy!)  For a step by step on rice, see here
  • once the rice is made, allow it to cool for a few minutes, add the sesame oil and salt and mix well
  • cut the radish into 10 long thin pieces (6 inches)
  • cut the cucumber into 4 long pieces (6 inches), give the column of seeds to one of your helpers to gnaw on and slice the outside chunks into 10 long pieces
  • peel the avocado, take out the seed and slice thinly
  • break the salmon fillet into smallish pieces

The assembly:

  • put the sheet of kim, seaweed, on a bamboo roller
  • scoop 3/4c + a little smidge rice onto the seaweed
  • nicely spread out the rice on the top 2/3 of the seaweed
  • place the ingredients on the bottom end of the rice
  • carefully make one roll from the rice side to cover the ingredients and pinch it nice and tight
  • roll the roll over the rest of the seaweed nice and tight
  • take a few little grains of rice to act as glue and place them on the loose end of the seaweed and squeeze roll tightly
  • let the roll sit a few minutes before cutting
  • cut with a sharp clean knife into small bite size pieces (this way it looks like more and you can eat it gracefully!)

kyah and nyles

Kimbap kids in the kitchen!