Rice Balls
Onigiri
Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Time: 30 minutes
F M V
There’s almost nothing to these: cooked short-grain rice, gently pressed together and shaped with salt-coated hands — they should be quite tender, shaped just firmly enough to hold together — sometimes stuffed with a piece of food, sometimes wrapped with nori, sometimes both, and sometimes neither. Serve as a side dish with Edamame Salad with Seaweed “Mayo” (75), or as a snack.
- Salt
- 4 cups cooked white or brown short-grain rice (page 367), still warm
- Pickled plums (umeboshi), pickled daikon (takuan), and/or lightly salted cucumber (page 48) for stuffing (optional)
- Soy sauce
- 4 sheets nori, lightly toasted (see page 244)
- Wet your hands with water and sprinkle a little salt on them. Grab about ½ cup rice and gently shape it into a ball; the rice should hold together easily. If you want to stuff the rice balls, poke a hole in each and put in a bit of any of the fillings. Close up the hole. Wash and dry your hands.
- Brush each ball lightly with soy sauce.
- Brush each of the nori sheets with a little soy sauce, then cut each in half (most easily done with scissors). Wrap each ball with a piece of nori, shiny side out. Serve within a few hours.
Rice Balls with Sesame Sprinkle the balls with toasted sesame seeds (see page 299) before wrapping.