Yes, rice balls!
Rice balls (주먹밥 ju meok bap) used to be food for travellers and soldiers, not because of its taste but for its transportability. The word itself literally means 'fist-rice,' indicating its size with not much seasoning but salt. I heard from my parents that it was more for sustenance than anything else.
Times have changed. Abundance of colorful vegetables along with sunny days mean that rice balls can be made for picnics. It's a fun family activity to mix in vegetable confetti, squeeze handfuls of sticky rice and roll them in sesame seeds and dried seaweed even if you don't go for a picnic. At the end, you're left with pretty little things to fill up on. These are just slightly bigger than chocolate truffles, so it's easy to keep popping them in your mouth before you realize how full you are.
I used red bell pepper, carrot and chive here, but feel free to use other vegetables, all finely chopped. Make sure you sauté vegetables, especially if they have a lot of their own liquid. I've also used onion before, which doesn't help much on the visual attractiveness, but it sweetens the rice ball in a savory way - the only way that the onion can do. When rice balls are as colorful as these are, you don't even need any coating. But it's still nice to get a little sesame bites and the flavor of nori if you like both. I do.
The most important step of making rice balls - or even rice rolls (김밥 gimbap or kimbap) - is to season rice when it's just cooked and still hot. Hot rice will soak up seasoning - salt, vinegar, sesame oil. It's hard to season cold rice because the flavors won't quite get absorbed into rice and all the seasoning liquid might leave the rice a bit wet.
This is also the recipe I used when I went to Camp Sunshine in early July and led a class for other camp counselors and volunteers. Hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as we did at the camp.^^
RICE BALLS (주먹밥 ju meok bap)
Yield: 4 servings (about 32 1-inch rice balls)
INGREDIENTS:
4 cups Freshly cooked short-grain or medium-grain white rice (a.k.a. sushi rice)
Rice seasoning
1/4 cup Rice vinegar
1/4 cup Sesame seeds, toasted and crushed
2 tablespoons Toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon Salt
Pinch Black pepper
1 teaspoon Neutral-tasting cooking oil
1 Red bell pepper, cored and finely chopped
1 Skinny carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons Chopped chives
Pinch Salt and pepper
For coating
1/4 cup Sesame seeds, toasted and crushed
5~6 sheets Nori (김 gim)
Optional sauce for spicy heat
1~2 tablespoons Gochujang (고추장 Korean red pepper paste)
2 tablespoons Toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons Rice vinegar
1 tablespoon Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Honey
DIRECTIONS:
1. While the rice is still hot, add sesame oil, rice vinegar, 1/4 cup of sesame seeds, salt and black pepper. Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
2. Drizzle oil on a heated skillet. Sauté finely chopped red bell pepper with a pinch of salt and pepper. When liquid from the red bell pepper has evaporated, add carrot. Stir to mix and sauté chopped red bell pepper and carrot together. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
3. In the meantime, set up a rice ball station. Place sesame seeds on a plate. Tear nori into small pieces and place them on a separate plate. You can also do this by putting nori in a sealed ziploc bag and rub nori to small pieces and powder. Prepare a small bowl of water to dip your fingers while making rice balls.
4. If using the optional sauce, mix all ingredients - gochujang, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce and honey - and set aside.
5. Mix sautéed red bell pepper and carrot and chopped chive in the seasoned rice.
6. With clean hands, take out about 2 tablespoons of rice. Squeeze lightly in one hand so that the rice sticks together first. Then shape it into a ball. Repeat with the rest of the rice. Dip your fingers in water when your hands get too sticky along the way.
7. Roll the rice balls on a bed of sesame seeds or nori. For a spicy version, dip a rice ball in the gochujang sauce half-way, then roll it on sesame seeds or nori to cover the sauce.
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