Korean-Style Beef Rice Balls (Jumeok-Bap)

I decided to try making these rice balls with short-grain brown rice rather than white. I've successfully made sushi with brown rice before, so I figured I might as well give rice balls a shot. It worked okay, but there were some issues with structural integrity. I found that it was easier to make larger balls than the smaller bite-sized ones. The rice also seemed to stick better once it had cooled down a bit. It still wasn't great though. Possibly having the beef mixed into the rice rather than as a filling interfered with cohesion. Or maybe I just didn't get the rice quite right. If you have concerns about getting everything to hold together, you can always just swap out the brown rice for white. As long as it's a sort- or medium-grain variety with a relatively high starch content it should work well.

Korean-Style Beef Rice Balls

Slightly adapted from the Aaron & Claire YouTube channel

Ingredients

Beef

• 300g-350g ground beef
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp. minced garlic
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 carrot, minced
• 1 zucchini, minced
• 1 onion, minced

Rice

• 1 1/2 c. short-grain brown rice
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 2 tsp. seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 sheet nori, crumbled/shredded
• 1 tsp. sesame seeds (optional)

Directions

Beef

1. Season beef with sugar, soy sauce, garlic, and green onions.
2. Heat sesame oil over medium heat and add beef mixture.
3. Cook for a few minutes until the beef is almost cooked.
4. Add the pepper, carrot, zucchini, and onion and cook for another few minutes until veggies have softened.
5. Remove from heat and set aside.

Rice

1. Add rice and water to InstantPot, seal, and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Allow a 10-minute natural release. (Or cook rice by your own preferred method, using an amount of water appropriate to the method.)
2. Fluff rice and mix in rice vinegar, sesame oil, nori, and sesame seeds.
3. Stir in 1/2-2/3 of the beef mixture.
4. With wet hands, form rice mixture into balls.
5. Serve as-is or with your favourite sauce. Enjoy the extra beef on the side if you wish.

Korean-Style Tuna-Mayo Rice Balls (Jumeok-Bap)

I made beef rice balls for dinner last night (write-up coming soon). We still had a few left over for dinner tonight, but not enough for a meal. I decided, now that we actually have mayo again, I'd try my hand at these tuna-mayo rice balls. They were delicious!

You can't really get much filling in each one, but I solved that by serving some extra tuna salad on the side. And they weren't as difficult to make as I'd feared. I mean, to be sure, mine weren't perfectly shaped and a few of them did fall apart. But overall, I feel it went pretty well! Especially as a first attempt at it. And the oyster sauce "glaze" really added a nice extra touch. I would definitely make these again.

Korean-Style Tuna-Mayo Rice Balls

From the Aaron & Claire YouTube channel

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. short- or medium-grain white rice (like Calrose or anything labelled "sushi" rice)
• 1 1/2 c. water
• 1 1/2 tsp. seasoned rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 (170g) tin tuna, drained
• 1 tsp. dehydrated minced onion
• 15-20 grinds black pepper
• 1/4 c. mayo
• 1/2 tsp. prepared wasabi
• 1 tsp. light soy sauce¹
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• a bit (~1 Tbsp.) extra sesame oil (for frying)

Directions

1. Add rice and water to InstantPot, seal, and cook on high pressure for 4-5 minutes (depending on rice variety).
2. Allow a 10-minute natural release, then open the valve and release the remaining pressure.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the tuna: Combine tuna, onion, pepper, mayo, wasabi, and soy sauce and mix well. Set aside until rice is done.
4. Fluff rice and stir in seasoned rice vinegar and sesame oil.
5. Combine corn syrup and oyster sauce and mix well. Set aside.
6. Pour 1-2 tsp. of sesame oil into a pan and heat it over low heat.
7. With wet hands, grab a good-sized handfull of rice (~1/4 c.) and squeeze into a ball.
8. Press your thumb into the centre of the ball to make a large divot and create more of a bowl shape.
9. Place a small amount of tuna (no more than 1-1 1/2 tsp.) into the divot/bowl.
10. Gently work the sides of the bowl up and over the tuna to completely cover it and seal it in.
11. Squeeze the ball again to get everything sealed.
12. Carefully compress it vertically and, using your fingers and thunb as guides form it into a slightly flattened triangle.
13. Brush the top (flat triangular face) with the oyster sauce mixture.
14. Place sauced side down into the preheated pan. Brush the other side (which is now facing up) with more of the oyster sauce mixture. Let it cook while you form the next rice ball.
15. By the time the next rice ball is ready to go in the pan, the first one should be ready to flip. Flip it, add the other rice ball to the pan (make sure both top and bottom get brushed with sauce as before), and let them both cook while you make the next rice ball.
16. By the time the third rice ball is ready to go in the pan, the first one should be ready to come out and the second one should be ready to flip. Remove the first rice ball, flip the second one, and add the third one to the pan, brushing it with sauce on both sides as with the other two.
17. Repeat this procedure until all the rice has been used up. (You will have some tuna left over.)
18. Finish cooking the last couple of rice balls.
19. Serve as is or with condiments of your choosing.

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¹ We were all out of light soy sauce, so I used a 1:1 mix of dark soy sauce and fish sauce instead. This seemed to work reasonably well as a light soy substitute. ^Back