Japanese Rice Balls Onigiri

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Japanese Rice Balls Onigiri

Prep Time:10 minutes

Cook Time:10 minutes

Total Time:20 minutes

Course: Rice, Rice dish, Snack

Cuisine: Japanese

Servings: 6 balls

Calories: 245kcal

Author: Shihoko | Chopstick Chronicles

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice (uncooked)
• 1 seeded umeboshi pickled plum
• 10 g of bonito flakes
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp mirin
• 1 nori sheets seaweed sheets
• 95 g tinned tuna

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• Cook 3 cups of rice according to your rice cooker or if you don’t have a rice cooker, follow the instructions here *4.
• Transfer the cooked rice in a separate bowl to cool it down. I used a Japanese wooden bowl*1 for sushi making.
• Prepare all the fillings that you are going to use and set aside. *2 see some suggestions
• I used Umeboshi (pickled plum), Okaka (bonito flakes), and Tuna. For Umeboshi, deseed the plums then divide the meat into three chunks. For Okaka, place bonito flakes into a small mixing bowl and combine with soy sauce and mirin. For Tuna, drain the brine or olive oil and mix with 1 tbs mayonnaise.
• Prepare seaweed sheet (nori). ＊3
• Place cling wrap over a rice bowl. 
• Place half a cup of cooked rice over the centre of the cling wrap.
• Put about 1tsp of umeboshi (or any fillings of your choice) on the centre of the rice then top with another half cup of rice.
• Wrap the cling wrap over the rice and squeeze and mould the rice into a triangle shape with your hands.
• Remove the cling wrap and cover the bottom of the rice triangle with a nori sheet and set aside.
• Repeat the same steps as above to make an onigiri with the bonito flake filling.

Notes

Cooking rice is not included in cooking time.

*1 There are special wooden containers called “ohitsu” to keep cooked rice in Japan. Once the rice is cooked, the rice need to be loosened with a wooden spatula then kept it in the wooden container. Because the wooden container will absorb the extra moisture and make the cooked rice plump but not soggy.

*2 Pickled plum, bonito flakes seasoned with soy sauce and mirin, tuna flavoured with mayonnaise, kelp simmered in soy sauce (tsukudani), teriyaki chicken, yakiniku (grilled beef) etc.

*3 In Japan or from Japanese grocery stores, you can find nori already cut to the size of a regular Onigiri. If you can only get nori sheets for making sushi, I usually briefly roast it under a low oven or grill setting, and then cut out into 8 strips.

Source article here