I made kim bap last night! Damn was it good.

That's just Korean for "sushi", which doesn't mean raw fish anyway - it means "vinegar rice". I do mine vegetarian. Last night, I made a simple enoki mushroom, crimini mushroom, red pepper, and spinach roll (with wasabi paste, shoyu and pickled ginger of course). Damn was that good.

It was either that or feta and spinach stuffed portabello caps. The only of my three daughters who is home right now wanted the kim bap for dinner so I'm making the mushroom caps for lunch. Actually, if she sleeps in much longer, that will be her breakfast.

Go to an Asian market for all of these things. You might be able to find them in a mega-store, but they'll charge you way too much and the ingredients will probably be old and stale. If you want a reasonable price and fresh ingredients, you'll need to find an Asian market.

1. You have to find good pickled ginger. Make sure it is covered in juice and not dry.

2. Find wasabi powder. Screw the shit in a tube. You mix the powder with a little water to make a paste. Use a spoon to drizzle the water. You can always add more, but you can't take it away. Mix the wasabi early so it has time to sit - the flavor gets better with time. The powder will keep forever if it is dry, climate controlled, and in a dark place (or metal tin like mine). It goes a long way so don't be shocked by whatever they charge for it.

3. You need nori sheets. The ingredients should read "roasted seaweed" or just "seaweed". They look similar to "TOASTED nori", which is toasted in sesame oil and salt. That's great stuff, but you can't roll logs with it. Only buy what you can use. You should be able to find a 5, 7, or 10 pack. Open it immediately before using, take out the sheets you will need, and immediately put the others in a gallon zip lock and seal it with as little air as possible. Those things get stale very easily. On a side note, the toasted nori makes a great snack and if you cut it into 8 pieces, you can use them with chopsticks to pick up rice and fillings and pop a treat in your mouth. Sometimes I just eat the stuff as it is. There are a lot of nutrients and trace minerals in all seaweed products. If your nori sheets get stale, you can toast it yourself. Put a thin layer of toasted sesame oil in a pan, drop the sheet in for a few seconds. You'll see the change immediately. Flip it and salt it and immediately take it out and lay it on a paper towel on a plate. Have someone else shuffle it off to another plate while you make the next one.

4. You need a bamboo rolling mat. I don't know of anything that will substitute well for it. I've done it with my bare hands when I couldn't find my mat, but they don't turn out as well and i wouldn't try that until you've made a shitload of them with a mat.

5. If you can find shoyu, that's what I consider the best dipping sauce. Regular soy sauce will also do. That's just my preference. You'll need small bowls to serve it in. You don't need a lot and can always leave the bottle on the table for those who want more.

6. Chop sticks are the preferred means for consumption, but you can be a heathen and use a fork or your fingers. I get the inexpensive pull-apart ones in a pack of 40 or so. My wife and I have our own nice ones, but sometimes we just use the cheapo type so we don't have to wash ours.

7. The best rice to use is actually called "sushi rice". For four rolls, use 1 cup of rice and 1 1/2 cup of water. Bring it to a boil, stir it a few times along the way, and then reduce the heat to the LOWEST possible setting and cover it. Set a timer for 25 minutes and ignore it. When the timer goes off, fluff the rice, put the lid back on and turn off the heat. About 10 minutes later, you need to sprinkle it with vinegar and stir. The best thing to use is rice vinegar, but if you can't find that, regular white vinegar with some lemon juice mixed in is a perfectly adequate substitute. Sprinkle about four teaspoons over the rice and fluff it again. You can move it to a bowl after that. It doesn't have to be cool to make the logs. If you can't find sushi rice, sweet rice will do and frankly any short-grain white rice can be used. It helps if it is sticky.

8. Fillings. Be creative. Any kind of mushroom works, but enoki is particularly good. Peppers, cooked egg, pickled diakon radish (long yellow log about 2" in diameter), carrots, spring onions, cucumber, avacado, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach, lightly steamed asparagus, whatever strikes your fancy.

9. Roll them. Lay the nori sheet on the rolling mat with the shiny side down. It helps to wet your hands when working with the rice, so keep a bowl of ice water and a towel near you. Spread a thin layer of rice over 2/3 of the sheet (closest to you). Use your pinky to apply a very fine layer of the wasabi paste in a line from one side to the other. Don't over do it. Then put the ingredients on the rice near your end but leave about an inch. To roll it, you want to keep a firm pressure on it to compress everything but not so much that you squirt it out the other side. Each motion should be a light move forward and over and then a downward and backwards compression. Pull the mat out as it rolls over the top and push the ingredients in as needed. When you get to the end, leave 1/2 inch of nori showing. Use a finger to thoroughly wet that 1/2 inch and then immediately finish the roll. That's the glue. Roll all of the logs before you cut them.

10. Cutting. You need a FUCKING sharp knife for this, and NOT a serrated one - smooth edge only. Refill your water bowl with water and ice. Wet the knife and use quick, determined slices to cut the logs into about 1/2 inch slices. It helps to lop off the ends first. If they get mushed and fall apart, just don't serve them. Sometimes the filling sticks out and it holds together and it makes a very pretty piece on the plate. It is hit or miss. Clean the knife with the towel and wet it as needed. If the slices start to compress or don't cut cleanly, you need to clean and wet it.

11. Presentation. Put the shoyu bowl on the plates. Arrange the slices around the bowl and be creative with the organization. Carefully take out slices of ginger and put them on the plate on their sides so they fall in a loose pile rather than being laid flat like a bunch of old roof tiles. Then make a small ball of wasabi and put it somewhere obvious on the plate.

12. Enjoy.

:9

:P