Korean Kimchi and Kimbap

South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK) (Hangul:
), often referred to as Korea and the "Land of the Morning
Calm", is a semi-presidential republic in East Asia, located in the
southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It borders North Korea to the
north and closely neighbors China to the west and Japan to the east.
Its capital is Seoul.
One peculiarity of Korean culture is its age reckoning system.
Individuals are regarded as one year old when they are born, and their
age increments on New Year's Day rather than on the anniversary of
their birthday. Thus, one born on December the 31st would be aged
two on the day after they were born.
Confucian tradition has dominated Korean thought, along with
contributions by Buddhism, Taoism, and Korean Shamanism. Since
the middle of the 20th century, however, Christianity has competed
with Buddhism in South Korea, while religious practice has been
suppressed in North Korea.
KOREAN CUISINE is probably best known for kimchi, which uses a distinctive fermentation process of preserving vegetables, most commonly
cabbage. Kimchi has a reputation of being a healthy food. The magazine Health named kimchi in its list of top five "World's Healthiest Foods" for
being rich in vitamins, aiding digestion, and even possibly retarding cancer growth. Popular dishes include bibimbap which literally means "mixed
rice" (rice mixed with meat, vegetables, and pepper paste) and naengmyeon (cold noodles). Also, an instant noodle snack called ramyeon is
popular. Koreans also enjoy food from pojangmachas (street vendors), where one can buy fish cake, Tteokbokki (rice cake and fish cake with a
spicy gochujang sauce), and fried foods including squid, sweet potato, peppers, potato.
KIMCHI
Ingredients:
KIMBAP (Korean Sushi)
Ingredients:
• 2 Chinese cabbages
• 5-10 spring onions
• Sea salt or other non-iodized salt, at least
100 g
• 4 heaped tablespoons (about 20 g) Korean
chili powder
• 2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoonfuls sugar, any kind
• Tablespoonful kim chi sauce (if available)
• Small piece of ginger (5 g), crushed, or teaspoonful powdered ginger
• Half an onion (optional)
Instruction:
1. Put those Chinese cabbage in the salty water for more than 4
hours. Then it will become like this
2. Squeeze these kimchi very carefully so that the tissue won’t be
damaged.
3. Make seasoning like following with all
ingredients
It becomes like this
4. Mix this with the cabbage
5. You can serve on a plate
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4 cups hot cooked rice
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
6 sheets fresh seaweed
1 small carrot, julienned
2 eggs, beaten
4 slices pickled yellow radishes
1 tablespoon sesame seed, toasted
Preparation:
1. When rice is almost cooled, mix with sesame
oil and salt.
2. Stir fry carrots briefly with a dash of salt.
3. Stir fry cucumber with a dash of salt.
4. Whisk eggs until evenly yellow and fry into flat
omelet.
5. Cut cooked egg into long strips.
6. Cook bulgogi according to recipe directions.
7. Using a bamboo sushi roller or a piece of tin foil, lay
the dried seaweed shiny side down.
8. Spread about ½ cup of rice onto 2/3 of the seaweed,
leaving the top 1/3 bare (if you moisten your fingers
or a spoon to pat down the rice, you'll get less of a
sticky mess).
9. Lay the first ingredient down around 1/3 of the way
up from the bottom of the seaweed.
10. Lay the other fillings down on top.
11. Roll from the bottom (as if you're rolling a sleeping
bag), pressing down to make the fillings stay in.
12. As you continue to roll, pull the whole thing down
towards the end of the bamboo mat.
13. Spread a tiny dab of water along the top seam to hold
the roll together.
14. Set aside and continue with other seaweed sheets.
15. Cut each roll into 7-8 pieces.