Recipe: Yubu Chobap (Korean Inari Sushi)

I love stopping by Palama Supermarket once in a while at night when they mark down all their hot foods! There was a sushi set leftover once and while I normally wouldn’t have bought it, since it was marked down…I did! It included maki sushi, a cone sushi and some other forgettable roll. The inari sushi took me by complete surprise. While the tofu skin is exactly the same as all cone sushi we eat, the innards was a mixed rice with minced vegetables…it tasted like a savory fried rice. It tasted SO good that I had to find the recipe to make it. I made it for a work meeting and people really enjoyed it! So let me share with you the recipe…

140208-01Yubu Chobap – ready to eat!

140208-02Minced carrots. These were such a chore to do…hahaha

140208-03Minced onions. I cried, of course.

140208-04Rehydrated shiitake mushrooms, chopped small.

140208-05Put the oil in the frying pan and fry up the carrots for about a minute. Afterwards, I pushed the carrots to the side and added the onions to cook.

140208-06After you cook the onions and carrots for about 1-2 minutes, push them aside and add the mushrooms.  The original recipe calls for like bulgogi or some kind of teriyaki meat chopped small too – I didn’t have that and I honestly don’t feel like you need it!

140208-07I add the sauce when I add the mushrooms and cook them altogether. I can almost smell it now as I’m typing this.  It’s good to add the garlic at this point so it doesn’t burn as you cook the mixture…but still cook it long enough to get rid of the raw flavor.

140208-08I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of this beforehand but when I put the rice in for cooking, I added two medium pieces of dried konbu on top to cook with the rice.  I lightly rinsed the konbu beforehand then cooked it with the rice as you normally would. When the rice is ready (let it stay on the warm setting for a while too) – remove the konbu.  After the mixture is finished cooking, add it to the rice and mix it together!

140208-09You also add some furikake to the rice mixture. I added a salmon furikake mixture and I thought it worked great!

This recipe is winners! I think it’s healthy but still very tasty so people enjoy it very much. The hardest part is just the mincing of veggies but if you’re super lazy, you can use a food processor (lol). So before this recipe, I hadn’t purchased too many bean curd pockets before and didn’t realize how expensive they are! The recipe I am sharing yielded 18-20 very generously filled pockets. Don Quijote has a pretty big selection of it, Times did not. When I visited Palama Supermarket last week, I noticed they sell the bean curd pockets for a good price! Cheaper than both Don Q and Times.  Give this recipe a try and let me know how it goes!

Yubu Chobap (Korean Inari Sushi)
Ingredients:
3 cups rice (medium grain)
1 large piece of konbu (dried kelp), broken into medium pieces (lightly rinsed)
Sauce
2 T soy sauce
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
Vegetable Mixture
1 tbsp of sesame oil
1 large carrot, minced
1 medium yellow onion, minced
6-8 dried shiitakes; rehydrated, drained, and minced
Splash of shaoxing wine (this is what I used – it’s not typical in this recipe)Furikake – I used salmon furikake
1 package of Bean Curd Pockets (this recipe makes enough for about 20 bean curd pockets)

Preparation:
1. Place rice and water into rice cooker, place pieces of konbu on top and cook. Remove kelp once rice is steamed (feel free to eat the konbu separately, it’s very good for you!).

2. Heat oil in pan on medium high heat. Cook carrots first for about 1-2 minutes, push aside and add onions to cook.  Mix all the vegetables in and create a small well in the middle to saute shiitakes, add sauce mixture to shiitakes after about a minute of frying.  Mix all the vegetables together in the pan and add a splash of shaoxing wine. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool.

3. Mix together the rice, vegetables and furikake.  Fill the bean curd pockets with as much filling as you want! Great served hot or at room temperature.

Original inspiration from: Korean Rice in Bean Curd Pocket by Anna Metcalf (YouTube Video)