Makiko’s recipe for onigiri (Japanese rice balls)
Ingredients
- Short grain rice
- Water
Ratio 1: 1
1 cup of rice : 1 cup of water
one cup of rice will be expanded and become 2.2 cup amount
1+1 = 2.2
Instructions
- Wash your hands
- Find a pot with lid
- Rinse your/our rice in the pot once or twice.
- Drain and put back to the pot
- Pour 1 cup of water (1:1 ratio)
- Soaking time 15mins
- Put the pot on the stove with high frame (Don’t forget to put the Lid ON)
- Cook till the lid makes noise by hot seamy bobble comes out
- Put the frame very low/small, cook for 5mins and turned off
- Rest for 15mins
Rice is Ready now
Please open the lid and celebrate the journey of individual grain of rice.
It is just “a once-in-a-lifetime chance” to perform together.
* DO NOT open the lid while cooking! That’s a big no no when it comes to cooking Japanese rice. I learned from my experience to catch the indication of “boiling” by the sound. The last 15 minutes of steaming/resting is an extremely important part of cooking rice, so continue to keep the pot covered till the end and do not skip this step!
Rinse water is quite useful, keep it as facial toner or cleaning flooring, these water have vitamin B1,B2,E, minerals and ceramide.
This rice cooking method is taught by my high-school friend, Tetsuya Hashikawa who travel around Australia with the car in 1994.
Making Rice Ball
Ingredients
- Salt 10g
- Warm water 80ml
- Nori sheet (cut into three stripe
- Filling – Umeboshi (pickled plum), salty kombu
- Wash your hands
- After bit of talk with rice, let’s use freshly cooked rice
- Bring a bowl/tray and empty rice to it, kind of toss in the bowl with spoon to cool slightly down rice
- Prepare salty water mix in a small bowl
- Prepare your filling – take out pip from umeboshi
- Prepare Nori – cut the Nori sheet in thirds
- wet your hands in salty water mix (I leave a bowl of water on the side with fillings). This important step will keep the rice from sticking to your hands – and allow you to mould your onigiri easily.
- Take some rice (half the size of a tennis ball) on your left palm (I am a right – hander)
- Make a small well in the middle for filling
- Put some filling in the well, this small hole will be a centre of onigiri also do not put too much filling it will cause onigiri to fall into pieces
- Then mould the rice with your hands around the well to cover your filling completely
- Press the rice around the filling to gently form the rice into a triangular shape. I use three fingers (index finger, middle finger, third finger) to make a triangle corner. Your hands should be just firm enough so the onigiri doesn’t fall apart.
- To flip from a top corner to next corner
- Left hand is pressing side walls (left palm is holding not pressing)
- Now, wrap Nori around Onigiri.
- Enjoy!
