Ssambap

A table of leaves and fillings where the rice is pressed into a small ball before it goes in the leaf.

Pork, Beef. Not vegetarian — contains beef, fish sauce, pork.

Ingredients

For the table

• steamed short-grain rice for 4, as on its own page
• ssamjang, as on its own page
• 2 heads soft lettuce, leaves separated
• a large bunch of perilla leaves
• a handful of blanched cabbage leaves
• kimchi, as on its own page

For the fillings

• 400 g pork belly or beef, grilled and sliced
• 200 g beansprouts, blanched and seasoned
• 150 g spinach, blanched, squeezed and seasoned
• 1 cucumber, in sticks
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced raw
• 2 green chillies, sliced

Method

1. THE RICE IS PRESSED INTO A SMALL BALL BEFORE IT GOES IN THE LEAF. A heaped teaspoon, squeezed lightly between the fingers into something that holds. Spooned in loose, it falls apart the moment the leaf is folded and the whole wrap collapses on the way to your mouth -- which is the entire practical difficulty of eating this, and it is solved before the leaf is picked up rather than after.
2. AND THE WRAP IS BUILT SMALL ENOUGH TO EAT IN ONE. That is the rule the whole table is arranged around: one leaf, a ball of rice, one piece of meat, a dab of ssamjang, one slice of garlic. Overfilled, it has to be bitten in half and the second half ends up on the plate.
3. THE LEAVES MUST BE DRY. Washed and spun or patted, every one. A wet leaf will not fold and tears along the fold.
4. TWO KINDS OF LEAF AT LEAST, because they do different things: lettuce is neutral and crisp, perilla is strongly aromatic and slightly bitter. Most people use one of each, stacked.
5. NOTHING IS ASSEMBLED IN THE KITCHEN. Everything is put on the table in separate dishes and each person builds their own. This is the point of the meal rather than a convenience, and wraps made in advance are soggy within ten minutes.
6. Steamed rice made as on its own page and kept warm in a covered bowl on the table.
7. Ssamjang made as on its own page and put in a small bowl.
8. All the leaves washed and DRIED thoroughly, and piled on a board.
9. Beansprouts blanched 2 minutes, squeezed, and dressed with sesame oil, salt and sesame seeds.
10. Spinach blanched 30 seconds, squeezed dry, dressed the same way with a little crushed garlic.
11. The meat grilled and sliced into pieces small enough for one wrap.
12. Cucumber, raw garlic and chillies cut and set out.
13. Kimchi as on its own page put out in its own dish.
14. Everything taken to the table at once, in separate dishes.
15. To eat: a lettuce leaf, a perilla leaf on it, a pressed ball of rice, a piece of meat, a dab of ssamjang, a slice of garlic. Folded and eaten in one.

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