Our team are huge fans of rice balls. From japanese-style Onigiri to Lao-style Khao Jee and everything in between (I’m looking at you, Arancini). It’s without question that our love for delicious rice snacks pressed into geometric shapes extends to Korean Joomuk Bap, which literally means “fist-rice” (주먹밥). These lil’ guys are super easy to prepare and make a great breakfast-on-the-run or sunset picnic snack. 

ACTIVE: 15 minutes
SERVES: 3-4
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: rice cooker, wok or skillet

Ingredients

• 1 package Phil’s Finest Korean-Style BBQ Beet Ground Beef
• 2 cups rice, short grain
• 1/2 cups sweet rice (sticky rice)
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 sheets dried seaweed (gim or nori)
• salt, to taste
• optional: furikake + sesame seeds for finishing

Method

1. Steam some fresh rice – for Joomuk Bap we like to do a combination 2 C short grain rice (we prefer Haiga, which is halfway between fully polished white rice and unpolished brown rice; regular white rice is great as well) and ½ C sweet rice.
2. Spread it out on a plate to cool. Mix the rice with a glug of sesame oil, a pinch of salt, and whatever delicious additions you’d like – the choices are really endless. Here we’ve added out Korean BBQ beef + fresh scallions here.
3. Press the mixture into balls with your hands, or use our fun trick, which is to add a scoop of your rice mixture onto plastic wrap and twist it into a ball – the result will be a perfectly formed ball!
4. Wrap those cuties in a strip of toasted seaweed, or just eat them as is.