Equipment and ingredients needed:
* Sturdy plastic wrap that is not so thin that it will get weak when exposed to a little heat, or too thin that you spend more time un-sticking it form itself than using it. Saran Wrap is great, or Glad. (I used a green colored wrap for the sake of photographic clarity, but you can use clear wrap of course.)
* A small bowl or teacup that is the size you want your rice balls to be. I like to use small teacups so that the onigiri don’t turn huge. For party-sized mini-onigiri you can use a sake cup or egg cup. The teacup used here holds about 2/3rd cup of liquid.
* A rice scoop or a spoon
* Properly cooked white or brown Japanese rice or uruchi-mai.
* Salt, preferably in a salt shaker (or you can just sprinkle with your fingers)
* Water
* Fillings of your choice
* Covers of your choice such as nori seaweed
* Make ready your teacup, a cup or bowl holding some water, salt shaker, rice, rice scoooper, fillings, plate to put the finished onigiri, and plastic wrap roll. It’s easiest to do this near the sink, if you have the space.
1. Line the small bowl or teacup with a piece of plastic wrap that’s big enough to hang well over the sides. Press the plastic down into the cup with your fingers.
2. Sprinkle the inside of the cup with a little water. Shake out the excess into the sink.
3. Sprinkle the inside of your wetted, plastic-lined cup with salt, turning the cup so the sides get sprinkled too. Shake out any excess salt.
4. Fill the cup with rice up to the brim. No need to press down; just fill it loosely.
5. Poke a hole in the middle of the rice, about halfway down in depth, with your finger.
6. Poke your filling of choice in the hole – about 1/2 a tablespoon or so. Here I have used traditional umeboshi.
7. Lightly press the rice over the filling.
8. Gather up the ends of the plastic wrap.
9. Twist and squeeze, pushing out any excess air. Twist tightly to form a ball. The squeezing is critical for ensuring that the salt sinks into the surface, and for making sure that the rice grains stick together enough so that the ball will not disintegrate when you bite into it.
At this point, if you just want round onigiri you can squeeze and press a bit and you’re done! If you want triangular rice balls, you just need to squeeze a little differently.
10. Form an L shape with one hand and make three corners on the ball…
11. Use the other hand to turn the ball and squeeze back to front. Squeeze, turn, squeeze. Practice makes perfect!
12. And, here you have a perfectly shaped triangular onigiri.
If you’re going to bring the onigiri on a picnic, just leave it in the plastic wrap, and bring along the nori separately; wrap the onigiri with the crisp nori just as you’re going to eat it. If you’re going to eat the onigiri right away, you can re-use the piece of plastic wrap for all the onigiri balls you make.
This method works marvelously for brown rice balls as well as white rice balls. Brown rice balls can be a bit tricky, since brown rice is not as sticky as white.
By Maki Itoh@justhungry.com
