D.I.Y #2 - onigiri

Oh!nigiri!1!  

Have you ever been watching an anime and seen the characters chowing down on onigiri and thought, damn that looks good!  I want some, but how do I make them?  Here’s how!

What are onigiri?  Basically, onigiri are rice balls with a filling (fish or picked vegetables, wrapped in seaweed for easy handling.  They are especially delicious grilled, as the rice gets nice and crispy.  That’s all – rice and filling.  I’m 90% sure the compact hand-held aspect (and cute shapes) add even more to the flavor.  The cuter a food is, the more delicious, right?

Ingredients

 1. Fresh, hot steaming rice.  You can mix some sushi vinegar in it if you like, although that is a bit untraditional.  The rice must be hot and steaming, or else it won’t stick together.

 2. Filling of your choice.  I’ve used some lightly salted salmon as the filling for mine, you can choose your own to taste.  If it is meat, pre-cook your meat and cut into small pieces.

To assemble:

1. Onigiri making is easier with molds, but you can use your hands to make triangular shapes as well.  Fill up the mold half way with the rice and insert a piece of meat.

2. cover with rice and compress

3 Flip out onto a plate.

That’s it!  Between each ball rinse out your mold in cold, salted water (and also your hands) to keep the next ball from sticking.  The salt in the water will add a bit of flavor.   Wrap and seaweed and enjoy!

I like my rice crispy so I decided to grill these. I whipped up a quick sauce of 1/3 soy sauce, 1/3 sesame seed oil, and 1/3 mirin.  Maybe there was some vinegar in there too.  Brush some onto each side of the onigiri and throw it on the grill…

(If you don’t have a grill, broiling also works pretty decently too.)

Lastly, proceed to stuff into your face, and enjoy! :D