Japanese Inspired Dinner – Onigiri!

So last week my friend and I decided to prepare for the first time some onigiri. If you're not familiar with the word, the onigiri are Japanese small rice balls, which can be filled with some condiment (like tuna, or a plum), or left by themselves. They are very easy to prepare, they look super cute, and are so tasty!

Ingredients (for 8-10 onigiri)

2 cups of rice

2 cups of water

salt

tuna, salmon

Japanese nori sheets (seaweed)

Maybe the only tricky thing in this recipe is the rice preparation. Japanese usually use a rice steam cooker, but if you (like me) don't have one, can cook it in a simple pot as well.

Remember to use some Japanese sushi rice, or, if you don't find any, some risotto rice will do as well. The first thing to do is to wash the rice a few times, so that it looses its surface starch, which otherwise makes the rice clump together.

After that, put your rice in a pot together with the water, and let it cook at high until the water boils. When it starts boiling, lower the heat to minimum, put a lid on the rice, and let it cook for 10-15 minutes. Leave the rice as it is, don't scramble it with a spoon. After 10 minutes taste the rice; if you feel it's almost cooked, then turn off the hove and leave it for some more 10 minutes by itself, with the lid on; if you feel it still is hard to eat, then leave it on for 5 minutes more. If the water is completely dried, add a little more.

When the rice is cooked put it on a plate, and let the fun bit start!

Put some salt on your hand (you don't have to put any salt in the pot while cooking the rice), make a thin layer of rice, and put some tuna, or smoked salmon, or any other condiment you like in the middle of it. Cover it with some more rice, and then shape it in a triangle with your hands. Now, it is a bit complicated to explain in words the exact movement you will need to do with your hands to shape the rice, so I suggest you to watch some youtube videos for that... but you can also “cheat” and use some onigiri maker!

I've got two of those, I bought them on Amazon (link here), and they are simply perfect, because you just have to put some rice in them, add the filling, cover, press with the small lid, and there you are, the onigiri are ready without hands pressing! Love them, totally (the fact that they are super cheap just increases my adoration for them).

When the onigiri are ready you can finish them up with a stripe of nori sheet, et voila', your masterpieces are ready! I'm sorry my pic doesn't really make justice to them, but my friend and I were so hungry and willing to taste them that basically ate them in a heartbeat! They were really nice, I promise you.

Hope you might find this a little helpful, and that it might have make you willing to try to cook some onigiri as well. If you do, please let me know! Sending you lots of hugs and talk soon,

M.