Sunday, January 23, 2011

Onigiri

Cute like sugar cookies, without actually being a dessert.  
We like it as an afternoon snack or in a packed lunch.

Leftover rice, about 2 cups
2 tablespoons of rice vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar

I spread the rice out on a plate.
I mix the vinegar, salt, and sugar to make a dressing.
I sprinkle the dressing on the rice.

I pack the rice into molds to make shapes, using my rice paddle to push the rice into the mold and level it.  I've got a little onigiri mold with three little shapes, which I bought in a japanese market a few years back.  Before that I used to just mold with a 1/4 cup measure.

Real onigiri would have something hidden in the middle, like pickled plum.  I've never met a pickled plum.  We usually just make them plain--haven't come up with a filling that interests any of us.

Do you make onigiri?  Is your vinegar-salt-sugar dressing different?  Do you put a little filling in the middle?

1 comment:

Heffalump said...

I make onigiri, but don't make it with vinegar or dressing. I got started making it from the just bento blog. We don't have any molds yet, so I just use a measuring cup. I line it with plastic wrap, brush the plastic wrap with sesame oil and sprinkle some kosher salt on it, then the hot rice, and wrap the plastic wrap around and shape it into a ball or a triangle. The salt and oil flavor the outside of the rice. Before eating it we usually wrap it in some nori (seaweed). I usually fill it with tuna, which isn't really applicable to this blog. However, my son likes it with pickles inside. I also think it would taste great with Korean pickled radish inside, and maybe some carrots that had been sliced thin and stir fried in sesame oil, some blanched spinach, etc.
We make Korean style sushi rolls and use the radish, carrots, spinach and some scrambled eggs cut into strips inside. Any of those would be great fillings for onigiri.