When one of my Korean parents at school taught my students and I how to make kimchi, she also taught us how to eat kimchi with bossam. Bossam is basically boiled pork (according to Wikipedia, the pork is steamed) wrapped in lettuce and other condiments. The combination of flavors from the bossam and kimchi left a strong impression on my tastebuds, and I was eager to make something of it.
Soon after that, I learned how to make fresh spring rolls during a cooking class in Cambodia. Almost identical to the Vietnames spring rolls, I have always loved the freshness of this dish, but felt that it needed something more to it. So I combined two of my favorite Asian recipes and came up with a Korean version of fresh spring rolls. Instead of using chicken breasts, as the original recipe suggested, or shrimp, as the Vietnamese would do it, I decided to use spiced boiled pork. I also added a few leaves of Kimchi to each roll, and the result was a piquantly fresh spring roll. When I made Mike try it, he at first, couldn’t figure out whether he liked it or not, but his discriminating palette seemed to want more. Before we knew it, we were stuffed with natural ingredients such as lettuce, carrots, bean sprouts, basil, cucumbers, and a little piece of heavenly pork.
Being the first attempt, I still have to play around with the ratio of ingredients. Mike suggested that I lessen the amount of kimchi leaves as he found it somewhat overpowering, but I personally love the heat that it gives the fresh spring roll. I also haven’t mastered the art of keeping the rolls in a uniform size. As you can see, some are somewhat bigger than the others. But right now, all that matters is that it is one delicious invention that I am proud to call mine. I call “dibs” on this one.

See the cabbage leaves of kimchi? I think two to three leaves are enough, but one is definitely too little.
Here is the recipe from the cookbook given to us at the Cambodian cooking class.




































