Onigiri Recipe and Fillings

How to Wrap Onigiri

1. Put a sheet of onigiri nori (cut a whole nori sheet in half) on a cutting board, and create a mound of cooked rice (about 3.5 oz) over the top half of the nori.

2. Wet your fingers and shape the rice into a triangle with a gentle touch. You can also make it into an egg shape if desired.

3. Create a hole in the center of the rice with your fingers.

4. Fill the hole with your favorite ingredient.

5. Fold over the bottom half of the nori to cover the rice.

6. Fold the excess length of the nori over the rice at the top.

7. Fold nori below along both sides of the triangle.

8. Your onigiri is complete. Put it in a plastic bag or clear wrap.

Because you didn’t squeeze hard to shape the rice, the nori may get slightly wet and wrinkled on the onigiri. But never mind how it looks. We guarantee your onigiri will never turn hard and will stay delicious even when eaten cold. Try it yourself!

Umeboshi Onigiri and Shiozake (Salted Salmon) Onigiri Recipe

The ancient people knew salt worked as natural preservative. They added salt to steamed rice and formed a triangular shape so that they could take rice for lunch and eat without chopsticks. Since then, onigiri has been loved as a portable lunch or snack. Fillings vary; from traditional fillings such as umeboshi* and shiozake**, to modern fillings such as teriyaki chicken and tuna.

Ingredients (Serves 6 balls)

• 3 Japanese go cups (540 ml) rice, steamed with a tsp. of salt
  *1 Japanese go cup = 180 ml

For fillings

• 6 pieces umeboshi*, seeded
• 6 tsp. furikake

For wrap

• 2 regular large (8×7.5-inch) sheets yakinori, cut in 1/3 to make 6 pieces which are 8×2.5- inch

Cooking Directions

Onigiri:

1. SHAPE THE STEAMED RICE
   Lay plastic wrap on a plate, scoop about 1/2 cup of rice and place onto plastic wrap. Put an umeboshi and a teaspoonful of furikake in the center of rice.
   Wrap the fillings with rice and shape into a triangle.
   There you go.



2. FINISH
   Wrap onigiri with yakinori. Enjoy!

*Umeboshi:
Umeboshi is a preserved food. Japanese apricots are salted, colored by red shiso leaves and dried. It is usually sold in plastic container packaged at Japanese supermarkets.
Here’s the process of making umeboshi.

1. Get fresh Japanese apricots. Clean and dry.



2. Salt the apricots for about 10 days.



3. Add red shiso leaves to color. Check the weather forecast, dry the apricots and the shiso leaves outside for 3 days and nights.



4. Sun-sanitize the liquid drew out from the apricots for about 1 hour.



5. Three days later, combine the apricot, shiso leaves and some liquid, store in the fridge.



6. Six months later, ready to eat.

**Shiozake:

Shiozake is salted salmon. It is found in Japanese supermarkets, usually in the form of fillets. Whole shiozake is found in winter and is popular as a new year’s gift.
Here’s how to prepare the shiozake filling for onigiri.

1. Grill shiozake. Shiozake is already salted. You don’t need to salt this salmon before grilling.



2. Debone and crumble the shiozake by hands. The shiozake fillings are ready.

Recipe and photos by: Yasuko Muro

Tenmusu (Shrimp Tempura Onigiri) Recipe

Tenmusu is an abbreviation of tempura and musubi, and musubi is another name for onigiri. The Nagoya region, in between Kanto and Kansai, is famous for its special local food. Tenmusu is a kind of onigiri, but the presentation is unique compared to the traditional onigiri. First, a big shrimp tempura sticks out through the rice. The other unique piece is that yakinori is wrapped as if it is a traditional Japanese robe “kimono” v-neck.

Ingredients (Serves 6 balls)

• 2 Japanese go cups (360 ml) rice, steamed with 1/2 tsp. salt
• 18 shrimp (3-inch large size)

For shrimp marinade

• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. ginger juice (made by squeezing grated ginger)

For shrimp tempura batter

• 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 1/4 cups chilled water
• 5 leaves shiso (Japanese basil), cut into thin strips

For deep fry

• 2 cups white sesame oil

For wrap

• 3 regular large (8×7.5-inch) sheets yakinori, cut in 1/6 to make 18 pieces which are 8×1.2- inch

Cooking Directions

1. PREPARE THE SHRIMP
   Remove the dark vein from the back; carefully slide a small knife down the back and make a shallow slit to expose the vein. Pull out the vein with the edge of the knife or with your fingers. Lightly rinse the shrimp in a large bowl of salted water. Pat the shrimp dry; wrap with cooking papers, let stand for 5 minutes to remove excess water from the shrimp. Marinate the shrimp with soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger juice more than an hour in the fridge. Then dry off extra marinade sauce with cooking papers.





2. MAKE THE TEMPURA BATTER
   In a large bowl, combine self raising flour with very cold water. Then add shiso leaves to the bowl.



3. DEEP FRY
   In an 11 inch wok a deep pan, heat 2 cups of oil to 350°F over medium heat.
   Make sure the oil is appropriately heated by dropping a drop of batter. If the oil is appropriately heated, the batter drops once sink and then float in a second. If the oil is too hot, the drops do not sink.
   Dip a piece of shrimp into the batter. Gently drop the shrimp into the wok, repeat dip and drop by one piece, deep fry until it reaches a golden color, 3-4 pieces each time.



4. DRAIN EXCESS OIL
   Transfer the shrimp tempura onto a rack lined sheet tray with tongs to drain excess oil.
   To avoid oil splashing, make sure the tongs are not wet before using.
5. MAKE ONIGIRI
   Lay plastic wrap on a plate. Scoop about 2 Tbsp. of rice, place in a thin circle onto the plastic wrap.
   Put a piece of shrimp tempra in the center of the rice. Wrap the shrimp with rice and shape into a cone.
   There you go.



6. FINISH
   Wrap the onigiri with yakinori. Make it look like the v-neck of a kimono.

Recipe and photos by: Yasuko Muro