MODERN ONIGIRI by the Spruce Eats Ingredients • 1 to 2 Sheets Dried Nori Seaweed
MODERN ONIGIRI By the Spruce Eats Ingredients
1 to 2 sheets dried nori seaweed (available to pick up at Acreage Library)
4 cups steamed Japanese rice (sushi rice), or white rice
1 ounce black sesame seeds (available to pick up at Acreage Library) Optional Fillings (leftovers are great!):
Chicken (cooked) Tuna (cooked)
Beef (cooked) Pork (cooked)
Salmon (cooked)
Steps
1. Cut each nori sheet (if using) into 8 or 9 strips and put about a 1/2 cup of steamed rice in a rice bowl. 2. Wet your hands with water so that the rice won't stick. 3. Rub some salt on your wet hands. 4. Place the steamed rice in your hand and form into a triangle, making sure it is dense and thick. 5. Put your favorite filling, such as umeboshi or grilled salmon, on the rice and push the filling into the rice lightly. 6. Hold the rice between your palms. 7. Form the rice into a round, a triangle, or a cylinder by pressing lightly with both palms, securing the filling in the middle. Roll the rice ball in your hands a few times, pressing lightly. 8. Wrap the rice ball with a strip or two of nori (if using), or sprinkle some sesame seeds on them (if using).
TRADITIONAL ONIGIRI By Niki Nakayama and Carole Iida-Nakayama
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Japanese koshihikari rice
1 cup California short-grain rice
1-1/2 cups cold filtered water
Fillings such as umeboshi, pitted and torn in bits; mentaiko; flaked smoked fish; or tuna mixed with mayonnaise
Coarse sea salt, preferably Japanese
Nori, preferably ariake grade, cut into 3-by-6-inch rectangles
PRO TIPS BEFORE MAKING
Soak the rice. It helps loosen and soften the kernels. If you don’t, the grains can be too firm in the center after cooking. Use your strongest burner. You want to hit the rice with high heat as quickly as possible to help the grains expand fast through quick absorption of the boiling water. Cook rice on the stove, not in a rice cooker. The timing requires a little trial and error, playing with your stove’s heat, your pot and the freshness of your rice. The timings in this recipe work consistently for Nakayama (and in our test kitchen), but check on the rice as it cooks. There should be no water left in the pot and the rice grains should be shiny and evenly chewy. Mix the rice gently before shaping. Let it breathe off a little steam and become fluffy. Don’t pack onigiri too tightly. Most people over-squish them, Nakayama says. The rice should hold together but still feel a touch loose when pressed.
STEPS 1. Set a colander (with holes smaller than rice grains) snugly in a bowl. Mix rice grains in the colander. Add enough cold water to cover by an inch; swirl rice using fingers, then quickly lift out the colander. Pour out water. Repeat until water is clear after swishing, four to seven times. 2. Shake rice in colander to remove excess water, then pour into a small donabe rice pot or medium saucepan. Add cold water, stir once with your fingers; let soak 30 minutes. 3. Cover pot and place over high heat. Bring to a rolling boil, 10-12 minutes, then immediately reduce heat to medium-low and cook rice at a steady simmer for 2 minutes more. Remove pot from heat and let stand, covered, 20 minutes. 4. Uncover pot and let stand until rice is cool enough to handle. Use a rice paddle to gently mix rice without crushing grains. You just want to disperse the moisture from the center of the pot. 5. Spoon about a third-cup rice into small rice bowl. Drop a teaspoon of filling in center, then top with just enough rice to cover filling. 6. Rinse hands with cold water and shake off excess. Sprinkle pinch sea salt on one palm, leaving the salt on fingertips of other hand. Turn rice out of bowl into the salted palm. Use heel of other palm and salty fingertips to gently squeeze and press rice into a 1-inch-thick triangle shape, rotating rice as you press. (Or, rice may be turned from the bowl onto a sheet of plastic wrap, salted, then wrapped tightly and shaped within the plastic.) 7. Wrap nori around rice and eat as soon as possible. (Nori may be toasted over a gas stovetop burner set to medium heat. Holding nori by a corner, flap it 3 to 4 inches over the flame until fragrant and crisp, 15 to 20 seconds.) >> To make now and eat later, the rice can be shaped up to 4 hours ahead, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature. If rice gets cold, microwave in the plastic wrap 30 seconds. Wrap in the nori just before eating. If you’re transporting your onigiri, pack nori separately, to maintain its crunch.