Recipe: Korean Rice Balls

When I created this blog, I had yet to actually prepare any meals and pictures, so I will be back tracking a little bit what I have. This summer after graduation I decided to take a little time off and travel Korea and Japan. Needless to say, the food is amazing. In Seoul, I had the opportunity to attend a cooking class put on for Korean students that would be attending western universities and wanted to learn a few basics. I was only there for the one class (they put on six), but heres what I took out of it. Unfortunately, I forgot to grab the recipes for these meals, so my first post will be pictures only. I know, I'm as disappointed in myself as much as your are. First up are rice balls filled with red pepper paste (gochujang) and tuna... Extremely simple. You wouldn't want to eat this as a full meal.. but a great snack they make.

Rice Balls

Ingredients:

Sticky Rice

Korean Rice Seasoning

Canned Tuna

Gochujang - Red Pepper paste

Make the rice as specified on the package. A safe bet is usually 2 parts water, 1 part rice. 

Form the rice with your hand into a flat patty about 1/2 an inch thick and the size of your palm. Take a small scoop (maybe 1/8th of a can) of drained tuna and an even smaller scoop (pea sized) of the red pepper paste and place them in the middle of the rice patty. 

Wrap the edges of the rice around the filling and form into a ball shape. Make sure the rice fully covers the filling.. If your having trouble or didn't use enough rice, feel free to just add a bit more to complete the ball.. Finish this off by rolling the ball in the rice seasoning.. 

And enjoy:)

Finished Rice Balls

Unfortunately thats really the only thing I can remember, but here are some of the other things that we made.. Bulgogi, another rice dish and Japanese curry

Bulgogi

Bulgogi and rice mixture

Japanese Curry