How to Make Onigiri

Recipe #2

How to make Onigiri
posted by: Angelic Song
Website: http://www.airandangels.com/bentobox/onigiri.html

Here is the step by step directions to making the all well know Rice Balls also known as Onigiri. These delicious snacks are fun to make and easy once you get the hang of it.

1. Cook a suitable amount of rice for the number of people you want to feed. Important: do not rinse the rice before cooking! You want it to be sticky and clumpy. For this reason, Uncle Ben's and other rice varieties guaranteed not to stick together are unsuitable. White shortgrain rice is the best kind for both onigiri and sushi - in supermarkets it's often sold in a pack marked 'sushi rice,' or if you can't find that, look for 'pudding rice.' I have also been able to make onigiri with long-grain rice - it's just not as authentic, and tends to have a slightly messier appearance (grains sticking out from the surface). If you are savvy you will be using a rice cooker for this part, but if you don't mind the inconvenience, you can do it on the stove or in a microwave - follow the instructions on the rice package.

2. It's important to work with the rice while it's still warm and sticky, but let it cool a little first so you won't be scalded. Five minutes should do it. Turning the rice from the cooking container into another bowl and fluffing it with a fork or rice scoop will help it to cool slightly.

3. Fill a bowl with cold water and stir in a couple of teaspoonfuls of salt - keep this in your work area and dip your hands before beginning each onigiri. This will ensure that the rice sticks to itself, without sticking to you! Some people wet their hands and then rub them with salt. I think this transfers rather too much salt to the rice, but you may prefer the flavor.

4. Having dipped your hands, scoop out a small quantity of warm rice. Depending on the size of your hands, this may be a palmful or half that - remember that, like making a snowball, you'll be compressing the rice together, so the finished onigiri will be a little smaller than the scoop you start out with, and size it accordingly. Always take an amount that you can easily work in your hand. If you have tiny hands, just accept that you will make tiny onigiri. They're cuter, anyway. Also, make sure the onigiri are the right size to fit in the bento box without being squashed when you put on the lid!

5. For disc-shaped onigiri, you need to squeeze and shape the rice with both hands at once, which is why some people find it a little tricky. Make the shape of a C with your left hand, and keep turning the wad of rice against this to give it a round edge. With the thumb and fingers of the right hand, press the rice into a flat shape - so your left hand makes it round, and your right hand makes it flat, turning it all the while, and both contribute to squeezing it together.

Okay! Well, there you have it! Home made Onigiri! I hope you enjoyed today's post! Thank you Angelic song for your lovely suggestion!

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