Samgak-gimbap is a triangular shaped gimbap which is designed to keep the seaweed fresh by putting it between 2 thin sheets of plastic. So you can eat it hours later, and it will still be crispy. It was invented by a Japanese company. I think whoever thought of this was pretty clever!
To make this, you will have to buy seaweed (gim) that was made specially for samgak-gimbap. You should also get a mold for making the triangle shape, but if you can’t get one, watch the video to see how to do it without it, just using plastic wrap.
In my recipe I’m going to show you 2 kinds of filling: kimchi and tuna, but you can use your own favorite ingredients to make delicious fillings.
Ingredients
(for 3-4 servings, or 8-9 samgak-gimbap)
- 4-5 cups cooked rice, still warm
- 1 tbs vinegar
- 2 ts white sugar
- ¼ ts kosher salt
- seaweed sheets for samgak-gimbap
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- a can of tuna
- 2 ts soy sauce
- 2 ts brown sugar
- 1 ts and 1 ts toasted sesame oil
- 1 ts and 1 ts roasted sesame seeds
- ¼ ts black ground pepper
- ¼ cup kimchi
- 1 ts gochujang (hot pepper paste)
Ok, let’s start!
Directions
Prepare rice:
- Mix vinegar, white sugar, and kosher salt in a small bowl until the mixture looks clear.
- In a large bowl add the warm rice and pour the clear liquid over top. Mix it and let it cool down.
Make filling:
Make the tuna filling
- Open a can of tuna and squeeze out the water through a cheesecloth.
- In a heated pan, put 1 ts vegetable oil.
- Add garlic, tuna, soy sauce, and brown sugar into the pan and stir fry it for a few minutes.
- Turn the heat off and add 1 ts toasted sesame oil, 1 ts roasted sesame seeds, and black ground pepper.
Make the kimchi filling
- Chop the kimchi and put it in a small bowl.
- Add gochujang, 1 ts of toasted sesame oil, and 1 ts of roasted sesame seeds to the kimchi and mix it up.
Put the rice and filling in the mold:
- Fill ⅔ of the mold with cooked rice.
- Place your filling in the center, then top up the mold with rice, put on the lid, and press it down.
Wrap it up:
- Take out a piece of gim from the package. Don’t remove the plastic wrap, we need this! We’re going to wrap this sheet of gim with the plastic around your rice and fillings. The plastic will keep both rice and gim fresh until you are ready to eat the gimbap.
- Look for the numbers on the sheet. The numbers side of the sheet goes down, and #1 should be pointing away from you.
- Take the lid off your mold, and place the mold face down on the middle of your sheet, with the rice facing down. The tip of the triangle should be pointing away from you, towards #1. Let the rice packet gently slide out of the mold and land on the gim. Remove the mold.
- Fold the sheet over the rice, away from you and towards #1. Then fold up the sides. Keep the sides in place with the sticker that came with the gim.
Eat:
- When you’re ready to eat it, look for #1 on the side of the packet. Pull that tab and the plastic will peel off.
- Gently remove #2 and then #3, putting the gim back into place each time.
- Take a bite. Crispy, isn’t it?
Hi Maangchi,
Hello from Sydney. I’ve been a big fan of your web. Luckily I live in Sydney where lots of Korean grocery in here.. Yay!
For Maangchi’s fan in Sydney : I just bought this Kim wrapper (10 sheets) include with triangle mold this morning at one of Korean Grocery at Liverpool St in city for AU$5.10. I couldn’t find the same brand as Maangchi has in this web. Maybe we could find this in Strathfield (Korea town in Sydney).
Can’t wait to make this for lunch tomorrow. Thank you so much for posting this
Thank you Jessica!
How did you like your samgak kimbap? Was it good?
Yes it was delicious and very handy for lunch!
Check this website. She made beautiful samgak kimbap without using triangle mold and plastic covered seaweed (kim)!
http://yummyapplepie.com/2009/07/07/samgak-kimbap/
Onigiri’s are very popular in my household. Since it is hard to get the molds here in America, I like to use cookie cutters and plastic wrap. It is much easier to find triangle cookie cutters than it is to find the molds. In addition, I have never seen the onigiri wrappers to purchase. So, we use seaweed sheets and wax paper. You can make an imitation wrapper easily and the seaweed won’t get soggy. Thanks for the video, I am going to make the kimchi one today!!
I just scrolled through the comments and found where someone else posted an online source for the wrappers. Hooray! Can’t wait to order mine and make these. What a perfect little lunch food with no worries about silverware or any of the other messiness involved in portable meals.
While I’m new to the convenient wrappers, I’ve made these with just the molds before and wanted to share with posters some other tasty fillings I’ve used with great success.
My favorite is a tuna, mayo, and wasabi mixture. Just be sure and squeeze all the water out of the tuna like Maangchi shows you on the vid. Another variation is tuna with spicy Thai basil seasoning (seasoning can be found in Thai section of your Asian foodstore). If you can’t find it there, the Thai seasoned tuna that Starkist puts out is fairly good. Tuna with mayo and Sirracha sauce is nice too. Sort of ends up tasting like a spicy tuna roll. And lastly, I love stirfried pork belly with kimchi. Squeeze out the tuna before cooking and then, using a back of a fork or the back of a plate, squeeze the entire mixture out again after it’s done. I use kitchen shears to cut the finished pork and kimchi into small little pieces so it fits better and doesn’t pull the whole triangle apart while I eat it. Bulgogi also makes a good filler if squeezed dried too.
Really, the possibilities are endless. When the wrappers come in, I’m going to try a bulgogi, spinach, and dak-kwang mixture with a dab of gochujang and see if I can get away a bibimbap sandwich. ;)
A shout out to you, Maangchi. Love your site!
Maangchi! I’m so glad to see that you an make these! You made my day!
These are one of my favorite snacks while living here in Korea, and I’ve gone out of my way to stop at convenience stores just to buy these. I will be leaving Korea next month and I need to look for this kim in the grocery store. I’m going to ship a bunch of it home! I’ll have to get the rice mold too. I’ve seen them at Daiso but never knew what you would use them for. Now I know! Thank you so much!
P.S. Is there anything Korean you are looking for that you can’t get in the States? Let me know and I’d be glad to send it to you!
That’s a very good idea of sending some Korean stuff before you leave there. Hot pepper flakes, kim, miyuk, dried squid strips, dried pollack…these items will be good for shipping because they are better quality and much cheaper. I’m ok, but thank you for your offer. very nice! : )
I’m so delighted to have discovered this website! Thank you for doing this!! Especially for a beginner cook like myself, it’s so helpful to see the videos and not just read the recipes.
I thought I’d share for your other readers that the special triangular mold & kim available for purchase online at hmart:
http://www.hmart.com/shopnow/shopnow_newsub.asp?top_cate=16&mid_cate=276&sub_cate=&product_id=8801164126931
oh, thank you very much! Would you leave this link on my forum under “where do you get Korean ingredients?”
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/where-to-buy-korean-cooking-ingredients
Many people have contacted me to say they can’t find kim for samgak kimbap.
I have been to four Korean stores and can’t find the kim! It’s so sad. I hope my sister in law can find some in Korea town when she goes in a few weeks…I really want these! :-)
I made these today and they were delicious and very kid friendly!
I have a receipe request but of course i don’t know the name. They are an appetizer/side dish sort of like fried little nests of shredded potatoes and either carrot or sweet potato. Sort of hash brown like but deep friend and with a little batter.
oh, it must be fried vegetables called Yachae twigim. It’s usually made with sweet potato strips,onion, carrot, and shrimp. Sure I will post the recipe someday. Check my squid twigim recipe. I posted sweet potato twigim recipe there, too.
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/fried-squid
Hi Maangchi,
My daughter and I made the triangle kimbap with star mold and heart mold. I wasn’t able to find triangle molds, so I bought whatever they had, star and heart molds:D We put smoked salmon with chopped onions and cappers (a little modification from the recipe), and it tasted delicious.
From my daughter: Hi! :D
wow, smoked salmon sounds terrific! Send me some photos later at maangchi@gmail.com. I would like to see the star shape kimbap or joomeokbap! Say hi to your daughter for me, too!
I love your videos and especially enjoy watching you. I really want to make kimbap. Do you know of some place online that I can buy laver (seaweed, or kim) that was made specially for samgak kimbap? There are no Korean food stores where I live.
Not that I know of, leave your question here https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/where-to-buy-korean-cooking-ingredients
If I find on line store where they sell the kim for samgak kimbap, I will post the link there. I bought it at a Korean grocery store.
I bought some kim that came with a mold a few months back.
I didn’t know how to use plastic wrapped kim! I was so confused. Plus, I don’t like to get the kim wet! Thanks Maangchi, now I know how to use the sheets, and can try your delicious fillings! :)
hoho, I get the feeling that you are going to make samgak kimbap pretty soon.
I made some multi-grain rice and got some traditional sushi nori and just rolled up the the multi-grain rice with sesame seeds and leftover leafy green vegetables. It was actually quite good and satisfy my cravings for your samgak kimbap. I didn’t bother to season the rice and it still tasted pretty good.
I actually went to a Korean store today and they had the triangular mold, but not the seaweed wrap you use. Just the traditional sushi nori. So sad! Also, I took a look at their dried anchovies, and all of their dried anchovies are very small ones. Can you make the soybean sprout soup with the small dried anchovies? I was also surprised that they didn’t carry the soybean sprouts either and this is a Korean store. So all I purchased today was just the trangular mold and a bag of dried corn for corn tea. Do you make the corn tea? I love it. If you do, how do you make your corn tea?
I’m also sad and frustrated on behalf of you! Korean grocery store doesn’t sell kongnamul? (soybean sprouts), Strange! I know how you feel!
Yes, you can use small dried anchovies in soybean sprout soup.
Anyway, you still can make Joomeokbap: 주먹밥. I showed how to make this samgak kimbap without using the mold in the video, right? Use the method (plastic wrap) and make rice balls with the tuna filling, and roll them in sesame seeds or laver powder.
How to make laver powder:
Roast a sheet of laver (kim) directly on the stove top. Both sides of the laver should be roasted so that it can be crushed easily. Put the roasted laver into a plastic bag and crush
Check my ddeokguk recipe:
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/ddukguk
:) I (literally) went out the next day after seeing your video and bought a kimbap kit from Super-H near my home. The kit came w/ a mold and 10 wrappers (same brand as shown in your demonstration). I have enjoyed watching your videos and have gleaned some wonderful inspirations.
Thanks!
blk
only 10 kim? (black seaweed wrapper)? I hope it was cheap. “I went out the next day after seeing your video and bought a kimbap kit ”
haha, that’s what I’m doing all the time when I find a real good recipe.
Yep, only 10 kim (black seaweed wrapper) and one pink mold; it was $4.29. Super-H also sold wrappers sans mold; quantity 10 kim/package, approx. $3.50. Not a huge marginal difference, though we’re a two-person house hold (ok, 3 counting our baby aka the doggie).
:) You should have seen the excitement when I handed a bag w/ the kit inside to my sweetheart. Moreso, his excitement this morning when the samgak kimbap were being prepared for his lunch to take to work.
Thank you again for posting great recipes, fun loving videos and also detailed instructions!
blk
“his excitement this morning when the samgak kimbap were being prepared for his lunch to take to work.”
Awesome!. I feel you have a lot of love for your “sweetheart”
:) Your comment made smile!
I was up in NYC over the 4th of July. I had mentioned to my sweetheart that you have get togethers and we should try one weekend to make it as his sister (and a friend of mine) live in the city.
Have you heard of dukbaegi? I went to the SuperH and at one of the stands they had packaged heavy bowels (pottery like?) and inside veggies/meat/seafood w/ chili paste, soybean paste and another type of paste. The young gal (there was a communication gap) said to place all of the ingredients into a pot and add 2 cups of water. I will try and take a photo of the bowl w/ contents. (guess I should have just emailed you:))
blk
I ordered mine in Korea – 100 kim for like 8 dollars!
Hello~ I know this is super late.. >.<
but do you mind to tell me where to order that? :D
I only got 10 for $4.29 in H-mart, wanna get a cheaper one.. ^^
Check this forum plz
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/where-to-buy-korean-cooking-ingredients
Thanks so much for your suggestions… I have “enough” now :D
The rich bulgogi and mushrooms sound delicous, but I have yet to try pickled radish. I look forward to it!
:(
I can’t find these little wrappers anywhere. I tried our local Asian store, and they don’t have it. Neither does the one I visit in the next large town over. Do you know if anyone sells these online?
I think it’s sold at either a Korean store or Japanese store. Some Korean stores don’t sell it though. Leave your question here:
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/where-to-buy-korean-cooking-ingredients