Hello everybody!
I’m excited to share my recipe for tuna gimbap (chamchi-gimbap: 참치김밥) with you today. The flaky, salty, and sweet tuna tastes delightful and goes well with rice and the other fillings: avocado, yellow pickled radish, and crab sticks. The various tastes and textures make for a lot of variety in one bite!
I’ve been making tuna gimbap this way for a long time. All my friends and family loved this gimbap so it was one of the first recipes I posted to YouTube in 2007. Since then I’ve refined the recipe a bit and I remade the video in HD to share with you all.
Enjoy the recipe and if you like gimbap check out some of my other gimbap recipes, too!
Ingredients
Makes 4 rolls (Serves 2 to 4)
For rice:
- 4 cups freshly made white fluffy rice
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon white or apple vinegar
For tuna filling:
- 1 (5-ounce) can of tuna, preferably oil-packed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon honey (or sugar), optional
For gimbap:
- 4 artificial crab sticks
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 4 strips (about ½ inch thick) of danmuji (yellow pickled radish)
- 1 or 2 avocados
- ½ lemon
- 4 sheets of gim (seaweed paper), toasted
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Directions
Prepare the rice:
- Put the freshly made steamy rice into a large bowl. Add salt and vinegar and gently fold it in with a rice scoop or a wooden spoon.
- Set aside and let the rice cool down.
Prepare the tuna:
- Heat a small pan over medium high heat. Add the tuna, garlic, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, soy sauce, and ground black pepper.
- Stir the mixture for about 2 minutes with a wooden spoon until the tuna turns a little flaky. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the honey (or sugar) if you use. Set aside.
Prepare the artificial crab sticks:
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Swirl the skillet around so the oil evenly coats it.
- Add the crab sticks, white side down. Cook for about 1 minute until the bottoms turn soft and light brown.
- Turn them over with a spatula and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and transfer to a large platter.
Prepare the danmuji (yellow pickled radish) and avocado:
- Put the 4 strips of danmuji on the platter, next to the crab sticks.
- Cut the avocado in half lengthwise and remove the seed. Slice it lengthwise while it’s still in its shell.
- Scoop the slices out with a large spoon and transfer them to the platter. Squeeze the lemon over the avocado to prevent it from going brown.
Roll the gimbap:
- Divide the rice into 4 portions. Place a sheet of gim on a gimbal (a bamboo mat for making gimbap), with the shiny side down. Evenly spread 1 portion of rice over the gim, leaving a 1-inch margin uncovered along the top edge.
- Divide the tuna mixture into 4 portions. Spread one portion across the middle of the rice, in a strip lengthwise. Add a strip of danmuji, some avocado, and a crab stick.
- Use both hands to pick up the bottom edge of the mat. Use it to roll the gim up and over the fillings so the rice surrounds them.
- Squeeze the mat gently and then continue rolling the gim in the mat, squeezing the mat regularly to get a tight roll.
- Unroll the mat and remove the roll from the mat. Set the roll aside, with the seam down.
- Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 3 more rolls.
- Gently brush the rest of the 2 teaspoons sesame oil over the rolls by hand or with a basting brush.
- Sprinkle the sesame seeds over top.
- Cut each roll into ⅓ to ½-inch slices with a sharp knife. For easier slicing, wipe your knife with a wet paper towel (or kitchen cloth) as you go.
Serve:
Arrange the slices on a plate or pack in a lunchbox. The gimbap will keep for several hours at room temperature.
Maangchi! Another winner of yours! I made some with tuna and some with bulgogi beef inside! Sooooo delicious!!
See full size image
Yes, it looks so colorful, pretty, and delicious!
Hello Maangchi, I followed you for a long time and have a bit problem with kimbap.. I don’t know why, but my kimbap is soggy after roll and hard to cut… Do you have any idea what I do wrong?