Friday
Sponsor
Onigiri ?
- sushi rice
- rice vinegar +salt/sugar, or already seasoned rice vinegar
- nori (seaweed wrapper)
- smoked salmon (or tinned tuna, or pickles, or Umeboshi, or whatever)
(Optional) - furikake / gomashio (Japanese salt/ black sesame seed, or other combo... seasoning shaker. Sometimes used in place of nori)
Short version... make rice balls/triangles, stuff with filling, wrap in seaweed, and season with salt’n’stuff.
- sushi rice
- rice vinegar +salt/sugar, or already seasoned rice vinegar
- nori (seaweed wrapper)
- smoked salmon (or tinned tuna, or pickles, or Umeboshi, or whatever)
(Optional) - furikake / gomashio (Japanese salt/ black sesame seed, or other combo... seasoning shaker. Sometimes used in place of nori)
Short version... make rice balls/triangles, stuff with filling, wrap in seaweed, and season with salt’n’stuff.
- “Polish” calrose / short grain / sticky rice under cold running water by rubbing the grains hard against each other & your hands, until water runs clear.
- Boil 3:4 rice:water for a minute or three, then turn down to low, lid on, for 20 minutes. Turn burner off. Set aside to cool. Add a few shakes or rice vinegar, and wave your pot around like a lunatic / holding onto the kid to prevent catastrophe as it’s upside down/ sideways/ being danced around the kitchen... coating the rice as much as possible with the vinegar.
(The hard way)- With cool rice, clean hands, a bowl of cold water (for dipping your fingers in to help keep the sticky stuff off you as much as possible), and either ziplock bags or cling film between your hands and the rice (ditto)? Grab a handful of rice. Squish it sort of gently into a rough ball. Poke a hole in the center and add your filling. The squish the everloving hell out of it WITHOUT squeezing the filling out. Best done? By dropping the ball onto the cling film/bag, and using that to apply even pressure. But can be done with hands/ have been made without plastic for Millenia. Make it into whatever shape you like, but triangles and flattish circles are the most common. You’ll see why; hands clasped tight together make triangles or flattish circles!
(The easy way) - Squish your rice into each side of the onigiri mold, and make a dimple on each side with your thumb, squishing it even more. Add your filling to one side. Squish the mold halves together. Pause for a second, to allow your rice to come to terms with its new situation in life, then open mold and pop rice ball / triangle/ square (whatever shape your mold is) out and set aside.
Wrap in seaweed... can be a perfect triangle completely covering/protecting it for later...or just a short rectangle to keep hands clean.
Season if you like.
If you’re waaaaaaay more talented/patient than I am? Or have a f*ckload if time to kill / kids to thrill? Make your onigiri look like animals and other startling things ;) like below I just damn well MAY have to make the Wallace & Grommet ones at some point. OMFG. Sean of the Sheep!!! :woot: But I don’t do these things as a rule. We’re proud if the filling doesn’t leak out too much.
- Boil 3:4 rice:water for a minute or three, then turn down to low, lid on, for 20 minutes. Turn burner off. Set aside to cool. Add a few shakes or rice vinegar, and wave your pot around like a lunatic / holding onto the kid to prevent catastrophe as it’s upside down/ sideways/ being danced around the kitchen... coating the rice as much as possible with the vinegar.
(The hard way)- With cool rice, clean hands, a bowl of cold water (for dipping your fingers in to help keep the sticky stuff off you as much as possible), and either ziplock bags or cling film between your hands and the rice (ditto)? Grab a handful of rice. Squish it sort of gently into a rough ball. Poke a hole in the center and add your filling. The squish the everloving hell out of it WITHOUT squeezing the filling out. Best done? By dropping the ball onto the cling film/bag, and using that to apply even pressure. But can be done with hands/ have been made without plastic for Millenia. Make it into whatever shape you like, but triangles and flattish circles are the most common. You’ll see why; hands clasped tight together make triangles or flattish circles!
(The easy way) - Squish your rice into each side of the onigiri mold, and make a dimple on each side with your thumb, squishing it even more. Add your filling to one side. Squish the mold halves together. Pause for a second, to allow your rice to come to terms with its new situation in life, then open mold and pop rice ball / triangle/ square (whatever shape your mold is) out and set aside.
Wrap in seaweed... can be a perfect triangle completely covering/protecting it for later...or just a short rectangle to keep hands clean.
Season if you like.
If you’re waaaaaaay more talented/patient than I am? Or have a f*ckload if time to kill / kids to thrill? Make your onigiri look like animals and other startling things ;) like below I just damn well MAY have to make the Wallace & Grommet ones at some point. OMFG. Sean of the Sheep!!! :woot: But I don’t do these things as a rule. We’re proud if the filling doesn’t leak out too much.
