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Onigiri
4 from 2 votes

Onigiri

Onigiri is a Japanese dish made from white rice in the shape of a triangle or balls often wrapped in nori seaweed and stuffed.

Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
20 mins
Total Time
40 mins
Servings: 6 pieces
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: Japanese

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Japanese short-grain rice
  • 6 umeboshi type of Japanese apricot in brine, whole red
  • salt
  • 2 nori yakinori, sheets grilled
  • Other traditional fillings possible
  • salt literally "salt": shio onigiri is made with only salt on the outside and no filling on the inside
  • beni shōga (pickled ginger)
  • katsuobushi smoked, dried and grated skipjack tuna and soy sauce, mixture aka okaka
  • salmon grilled, crumbled, salted
  • mustard greens Japanese pickled aka takanazuke
  • cod roe salted aka tarako
  • cod roe salted cod roe seasoned with hot peppers, aka mentaiko
  • konbu (dashima or haidai: type of seaweed that can be thinly sliced ​​and cooked with a mixture of soy sauce, mirin and sake to obtain a condiment called tsukudani to be stuffed inside an onigiri)
  • konbu salted and dried, fresh, thinly sliced aka shio konbu
  • shrimp tempura usually stuffed, aka tenmusu
  • chicken fried Japanese style aka karaage
  • egg for ramen, aka ajitsuke tamago
  • salmon cooked
  • chicken cooked

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Immerse the rice in a container generously filled with cold water and rub it between both hands for 2 minutes then drain it.
  2. Repeat the same operation 5 times or more, or until the water is clear.
  3. Cook rice by absorption, normally in a rice cooker or Dutch oven, according to package directions.
  4. While the rice cooks, remove the pits from the umeboshi.
  5. Using kitchen scissors, cut the nori sheets into thirds.
  6. Prepare a medium bowl of water and a small bowl of salt.
  7. When the rice is cooked by absorption, fluff it with chopsticks, then, using a spatula, transfer it to a bowl so that it cools more quickly.
  8. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth to prevent the rice from drying out.
  9. When the rice has cooled enough to handle without burning, wet the hands in the bowl of water and dip the index finger in the bowl of salt.
  10. Rub the salt between both hands then pour ⅙ of the rice into one hand.
  11. Squeeze a pitted umeboshi into the center of the rice mound and enclose it there.
  12. Bend the fingers over the rice, then use the index and middle fingers of the free hand to shape the rice into a triangle, without pressing it down too much.
  13. Manipulate the rice ball until the triangle has sides of equal length and it is about the same thickness.
  14. To wrap the onigiri, place a strip of nori centered over the rice then wrap each side of the nori around the triangle and under the base.
  15. Garnish the top of the onigiri with a small dab of umeboshi, to identify what's inside.

Notes

  • Following the same principle as the umeboshi onigiri, garnish the top of each piece with a small piece of the chosen stuffing.