Jumeok-bap

Seasoned rice squeezed into balls in the fist rather than rolled, so the outside holds and the middle stays loose.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish, fish sauce.

Ingredients

• steamed short-grain rice for 4, as on its own page, warm
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
• 4 sheets gim, toasted and crumbled
• 1 tin tuna, drained and flaked
• 100 g kimchi, as on its own page, squeezed and chopped very fine
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, optional

Method

1. THEY ARE SQUEEZED, NOT ROLLED. A handful of rice taken in the palm and closed on hard, two or three times, turning it -- the name is the word for a fist. That compresses the outside into a shell that holds while the middle stays loose and separate. Rolled smooth between the palms like a meatball, the whole thing compacts evenly and you get a dense lump that eats like putty.
2. THE RICE IS WARM AND THE HANDS ARE WET AND SALTED. Warm rice sticks to itself and cold rice will not bind at all. Wet hands stop it sticking to you, and a little salt on the palms seasons the outside at the same time.
3. THE FILLINGS ARE CHOPPED VERY FINE AND MIXED THROUGH, not put in the middle as a pocket. These are not onigiri: there is no filling and no neat parcel, just seasoned rice with things dispersed through it, which is why they can be squeezed at all.
4. THE KIMCHI IS SQUEEZED HARD AND CHOPPED SMALL, as everywhere else here. Any liquid at all and the balls will not hold.
5. AND THEY ARE MADE TO BE EATEN COLD, LATER, which is worth saying because almost nothing else in this collection is. They keep a few hours wrapped, and are better at room temperature than straight from the hand -- but never refrigerated, which makes the rice hard.
6. Steamed rice made as on its own page and left to cool to warm.
7. The sesame oil, salt and sesame seeds folded through it with a cutting motion.
8. The crumbled gim, tuna, chopped kimchi and spring onions folded in evenly, with the mayonnaise if using.
9. A small bowl of water and a pinch of salt set beside the work surface.
10. Hands wetted and lightly salted.
11. A handful of the mixture taken and SQUEEZED in the closed fist 2 or 3 times, turning it, to about the size of a golf ball.
12. Set on a tray. Hands re-wetted every few balls.
13. Rolled in extra crumbled gim or sesame seeds if you want them coated.
14. Left at room temperature, loosely covered, and eaten within a few hours. Not refrigerated.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under South Korea · All recipes