It is not so easy to cook with kids. But the good news is that kids sometimes eat vegetables or meat they would not normally eat without hesitation just because they were involved in a cooking process. To make things easier, mom and dad need to do a bit of preparation in advance. Then, kids will be able to start cooking right away without difficulties. More importantly, to enjoy cooking with kids, parents should not focus on making a perfect dish. Temakizushi is the right dish in that regard. All you need to do is to roll well-prepared, colorful ingredients in a sheet of dried seaweed. As it does not have to look pretty, neither parents or kids would feel pressured. You can even make one for each other and put it into each other's mouth.

 The two important determinants of temakizushi are rice and dried seaweed. For dried seaweed, I recommend 'Gobchang Dried Seaweed'. It is dried seaweed that is to be eaten unseasoned and roasted. It is rich in flavor, thicker than normal dried seaweed and crispy in texture. Even the sound of eating it makes you go hungry. You can get gobchang dried seaweed easily at general supermarkets. For rice, I prefer cooking it in a sot, Korean iron pot, although an electric rice cooker is more convenient. When I first tried cooking rice in a sot, I was worried if the rice would be undercooked or burned. But after a few trials, I learned that it was easier than I thought and the rice tastes better. Having fallen in love with the taste, I make sot-cooked rice every weekend.

 Let me tell you how to cook rice in a sot. First, wash the rice and leave it in a colander for an hour before cooking. Add the right amount of rice and water in a sot and wait for around 5 minutes on high heat until it starts boiling. Reduce the heat and cook it for another 15 minutes before removing it from the heat. Leave it for 10 minutes to let it settle in steam and the rice will be ready. For kimbap, it is better that rice is well-cooked. Make sure the rice and water (moisture) are exactly 1:1 in proportion. To make it easier, add seasoning in a measuring cup first then pour water in it to measure.

 All the various ingredients that could be added to temakizushi are as below. It does not mean that you need all of them, so feel free to add or omit as you like.

1. Wash the rice and place it in a colander for an hour before cooking.

2. Put the rice in a sot and add pre-mixed water+Mirim+cheongju. Add kelp pieces to the rice and start cooking. For sot-cooked rice, you should cook it for 5 minutes over high heat, 15 minutes over low heat and let it settle for 10 minutes. When it is cooked, stir the rice with the edge of a rice paddle as if slicing it to cool it down.

3. Spread the cooled-down rice on a big tray and sprinkle vinegar water evenly. When rice and seasoning are roughly mixed, stir the rice while cooling it down with a fan. Make sure the rice is cooled down sufficiently and all steam is out.

1. Mix all ingredients of egg roll.

2. Make egg roll by pouring the mixture of egg and water little by little onto a heated pan. Pour the mix over 4~5 separate times. The temperature of a pan is important in preventing egg roll from sticking onto the pan. Add the mix onto a pan, and if the pan makes a sizzling sound and the egg rises with bubbles, it means the temperature is right. When you roll the egg, reduce the heat a bit.

3. When egg roll is cooked, cool it down a bit and slice it vertically for kimbap.

1. Remove oil from tuna can and leave finely-diced onion in cold water for about 30 minutes.

2. Mix tuna, onion, mayonnaise and lemon juice well.

1. Cut avocados in half by slicing them vertically open. Stick a knife deep into the seed then twist the knife to remove the seed. If it is ripe, you can peel off the skin easily with your hands. Slice it vertically for kimbap.

2. Cut raw salmon and tuna into bite-size pieces.

3. Serve other ingredients such as white sesame, wasabi and radish sprouts in small dishes together with a small spoon or tongs for convenient serving.

 Everything is now ready. Put it all on a big plate and roll your own kimbap as you like. To make a roll, spread the rice flat onto a sheet of dried seaweed and put ingredients you want on the rice. Then roll the dried seaweed sheet from the corner to make a horn shape. Once you start rolling kimbap with all different combinations of ingredients, even a big portion of rice will be gone in the blink of an eye.

 My kids found it difficult to roll kimbap themselves because of small hands, so I bought a mini-sized rolling mat for them. They make kimbap using the small rolling mat and a small rice paddle. I believe they will cherish the memory of cooking with mom and dad for a long time as I did.