Hi everyone! Valentine’s Day is coming. So today I’m going to make a very special Valentine’s day Luch box that is filled with heart-shaped foods so that your special someone can feel your love. Not only is it pretty, but it is also very easy to make and, most of all, delicious. I tried to put a mix of grains, meats, vegetables, fruits, and desserts in this lunch box for a balanced diet. On this Valentine’s Day, make this lovely and delicious lunch box for someone you love. Let’s get started.
Yield: 1 Serving
Short Korean Lesson
- SaRangHaeYo (사랑해요.) = I love you.
- JoAHaeYo (좋아해요.) = I like you.
Video Instructions
Heart Kimbap Ingredients:
- 2 Generous Cups Cooked Short Grain Rice
- 4 Sheets Dried Laver for Kimbap
- 1 Can Spam Light (12 oz)
- 2 tsp Sesame Oil
- 2 tsp Sesame Seeds
Heart Shaped Radish Pickle Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Korean Radish (6 oz)
- ¾ Cup Water
- ⅓ Cup Sugar
- 2 Tbsp Fresh Beet (or ¼ tsp Red Food Coloring)
- 1½ Tbsp Vinegar
- ½ tsp Salt
Other Sides Ingredients:
- 10 Grape Tomatoes (+5 Red Toothpicks)
- 10 Green Grapes (+5 Yellow Toothpicks)
- Some Hershey’s Hugs Valentine’s Candies
- Some Heart Shaped Rolled Eggs
Directions
You have to make the heart shaped Radish pickle at least two days before you pack this lunch box. Prepare 1 cup worth of (6 oz) Korean radish. Peel off the skin and slice it into ½ inch thick slices.
Cut the radish into small heart-shaped pieces with a heart-shaped vegetable cutter. We will need about 1 cup of heart shaped radish pieces. Do not throw away the rest of the scraps – use them to make other Korean food like soup or Broth.
Put all the radish pieces in a pint mason jar.
Now let’s make the juice for pickling. I’ll pickle the radish red because it’s Valentine’s Day by using a chunk of beet, or a little bit of red food coloring.
Put all the ingredients for the radish pickle, except for the radish, in a pot: ¾ cup water, ⅓ cup sugar, 2 Tbsp worth of fresh beet (or ¼ tsp red food coloring), 1½ Tbsp vinegar, and ½ tsp salt.
For health, I recommend using about 2 Tbsp worth of a beet, but if you want more delicious and vivid red heart pickles, use ¼ tsp of red food coloring. Once the juice starts to boil, boil it for a minute on high. (If you use a beet, you need to boil covered for about 10 minutes on medium.)
After a minute, pour the boiling juice into the jar with the radish.
Let it cool down, and then put it in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days before eating it.
On Valentines day, start to make your lunch box by making the heart-shaped grapes and tomatoes. We need 10 green grapes (with 5 yellow toothpicks) and 10 grape tomatoes (with 5 red toothpicks). To make a perfect heart shape, try to pick and pair similar sized and shaped ones.
To make 1 heart, we need 2 similar-sized green grapes. Cut a little in an oblique direction at the upper part of one grape.
Do the same for the other grape. Then, if you stick the two parts cut with the knife facing each other, it becomes a heart shape. Pretty heart grapes are easy and fun to make, right?
Stick a toothpick through them to fix the grapes and make an cupid-like arrow. Make four more.
In the same way, try to make 5 heart tomatoes with 10 grape tomatoes. Set the heart-shaped grapes and tomatoes aside.
Now, let’s make the heart-shaped kimbap. First, get 1 can of (12 oz) spam light. Normal spam can be too salty for this recipe, so I recommend you to use the light version. If you do not like spam, you could use ham. Cut the spam in 5 pieces with about a ½-inch thickness. We will use 4 of them. If you use ham, make sure that you cut it into a 1 X 2 inch rectangle shape (with about a ½-inch thickness).
In a heated nonstick pan, fry the spam for about 2 minutes on each side, or until both sides become nicely golden brown on medium. After it is done frying, let it cool down little bit.
Meanwhile, obtain 4 sheets of dried laver for kimbap. Cut them in half lengthwise with a knife. Among the 8 pieces of dried laver, cut 4 of them to make them about ¼ shorter than the other 4. The 4 longer dried laver sheets are for the rice and the 4 short dried laver sheets are for the spam.
Next, season 2 cups of cooked short grain rice with 2 tsp of sesame oil and 2 tsp of sesame seeds. Since, the spam is salty, we will not add any salt for the rice. Mix everything together gently.
Divide the seasoned rice into 4 groups. Each portion will make one roll of kimbap.
Cut the center of the fried spam obliquely with a knife.
If you put the two slices facing each other, it will be like this heart shape.
Check both sides, and if one side is longer than the other side, cut it to match with a knife.
Spread one portion of the rice we divided earlier on a dried laver sheet evenly. Here, about 1 Tbsp of rice should be saved in that one portion for later. Put the rice on about ¾ of the dried laver and leave some part empty. Put little pieces of rice on the edge, which will help to seal the kimbap later.
Place the heart shape spam on the center of one of the shorter dried laver sheets.
Wrap the spam with the dried laver.
Place the spam in the middle of the rice.
Fill the top part of the heart spam with the 1 Tbsp of rice we just saved. By doing this, the heart-shaped spam can be nicely fitted inside of the kimbap.
Roll the kimbap tightly with your hand. Since this kimbap is about half the length of normal kimbap, you can easily roll the kimbap with your hands without a bamboo mat.
Slice the kimbap into your desired size. Since it is kind of big, I like to slice mine thinner.
Look at this beautiful heart kimbap. You can make the heart smaller if you use smaller pieces of spam. (As long as it’s a rectangle shape, it will work the same.)
Then, you can make some heart-shaped rolled eggs using my recipe.
I got some Hershey’s Hugs Valentine’s Candies for something sweet.
Everything is ready, so it’s finally time to pack our Valentines lunch box. I like to use this square-shaped lunch box. I will put 12 pieces of heart kimbap in it.
Place 2 small heart-shaped sillicon bowls next to the kimbap. Fill one bowl with few pieces of heart-shaped radish pickles.
And put 3 pieces of heart-shaped rolled eggs in another bowl.
Put the heart shape tomatoes on the other side of your lunch box.
Place another silicone bowl next to the radish pickles. Then, put few pieces of chocolate candies in it.
Finally, fill the empty space with the green grape hearts.
It is done now. 🙂 I put many different heart-shaped foods all in one lunch box this time, but you can use different ones in normal lunch boxes separately. If you make this for somebody special, please take picture of the moment and share the pics with us. 🙂 I can not wait to hear your happy feedback. Happy Valentines Day, everybody! ❤️
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