Gimbap

Sue Pressey’s yachae gimbap combines sesame-seasoned short-grain rice with seaweed, spinach, carrot and egg. Her selected version also includes Korean kimbap ham, imitation crab and yellow pickled radish, with optional seasoned burdock.

Spinach is briefly boiled, cooled and squeezed before a little sesame oil and salt are mixed through it. Beaten eggs cook as an omelette and are cut into long strips; the carrots, crab sticks and ham each receive a brief separate pan cook.

Cooked rice is mixed with sesame oil and salt, then spread thinly over part of each seaweed sheet. The colourful filling strips are arranged together so each roll contains the selected ingredients.

The seaweed rolls around the filling, with a little water or a few cooked rice grains helping it stick if needed. The finished rolls are brushed with the remaining sesame oil and sliced into bite-size pieces.

Pressey recalls the sesame aroma of her mother’s school-picnic gimbap in Korea. She favours serving the newly sliced rolls while the rice remains soft and the seaweed has not grown chewy, often with extra pickled radish alongside.