Smoked Salmon Gimbap

Looking for something new for your next picnic or hike? Or have some sheets of seaweed in the pantry that you’re looking to use? Smoked Salmon Gimbap is perfect for you! This is a popular Korean takeout food that travels well so it’s perfect for your next outing! Gim is the romanized Korean word for seaweed and bap is the romanized word for rice. These rolls are commonly filled with the likes of canned tuna, carrots, egg, marinated beef, and pickled daikon radish (danmuji). For our take on it, we used our smoked sockeye as the protein of choice and it worked wonderfully with the acid from the danmuji, and the crunch from the vegetables. They take a little bit of practice, but after your first one, you’ll be a pro! You can make your own danmuji (check out Maangchi’s recipe!), but it should be easy to find at your Asian market!

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 can Wildfish Smoked Sockeye

4 sheets of seaweed (try and get Korean gim but nori will work as well!)

1 carrot cut into matchsticks

12 oz spinach

4 strips of danmuji (cut to the width of your seaweed sheets)

3 cups of freshly made shortgrain rice

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 garlic cloves, minced

Salt

Sesame oil

Optional special equipment:

Bamboo sushi mat

Technique

While your rice is warm, mix in a pinch of salt and a couple teaspoons of sesame oil. Mix gently, so as not to crush the grains, but so that the salt and oil is thoroughly incorporated. Cover and set aside to cool.

Mix carrot matchsticks with a pinch of salt and give it a few minutes to sweat out any moisture. Drain any excess water.

Saute carrots over medium heat for a minute or two, just to slightly soften them, and then set aside.

Blanch spinach for 30 seconds, drain and squeeze out any excess water. Mix with minced garlic, a teaspoon or two of sesame oil, and set aside.

Add a pinch of salt to the beaten eggs and mix. Using a lightly oiled 10” non stick pan over medium low heat, add your egg mixture and tilt your pan so the egg covers the entire bottom of the pan and cook for a few minutes, making sure the egg doesn't get any color. After a couple minutes, flip the egg “pancake.” Take the pan off the heat and let the residual heat finish cooking the egg.

Take the egg pancake and roll it up. Slice into strips about ½”-¾” wide and set aside.

Place your toasted seaweed sheet onto your bamboo mat (shiny side down), spread ¾ cup of rice out evenly over the surface, leaving about 2” uncovered on one side (this will be used to help seal the roll).

Lay down a strip of danmuji, a few strips of egg, carrots, spinach, and finally salmon in the center of the rice.

Slowly fold over an edge of the seaweed to cover your fillings and, using your mat, apply even pressure to the fillings as you roll towards the part of the seaweed without any rice. Let it sit, seam side down and it should seal itself!

Repeat for the rest of your ingredients. Lightly apply some sesame oil to the outsides of the rolls.