Tuesday 16 October 2007

Onigiri


Onigiri, or musubi, are a popular Japanese snack, especially for bento. I like them because they are made even quicker than sushi, you can use even more sorts of fillings for them and they are more transportable (and even stay fresh for up to a week if you wrap them in foil and store them in the fridge). Onigiri are my favourit bento food, especially when it comes to travelling and school when you don't really have the time to sit down and spread all your lunch gear in front of you. And they are really filling. Even I can only eat three small or two huge ones and I'm stuffed. And I tend to cook for 4 people and it it all on my own usually. This is the basic recipe:

1 cup of sushi rice

bean sprouts
cucumber (or whatever vegetable you think might suit)

nori (dried seaweed) as used for sushi
if you can get it,
furikake (Japanese rice seasoning)


Cook the rice after directions on the package, let it cool a bit, but not completely (will not stick well anymore then), if you like, mix with furikake. Cut sprouts and vegetables into VERY small pieces. Make sure to always have a bowl of water next to you while forming the onigiri (otherwise the rice will only stick to your hands)- take a handful of rice and make a mould. Put the veggies into it and form balls or (advanced ;-)small triangles. At the end, wrap with a small leaf of nori. Makes about 4 - 5 huge
onigiri.

There's also loads of fancy onigiri stuff around (moulding devices to make them into bear/flower/skull/whatever shape), but I prefer doing them with my own hands (does this sound nasty?). My favourite filling is the green trinity- cucumber, green onion and wasabi, but you really can use any veg and un-veg you like. Even peanut butter (though I'd omit the nori sheet for sweet stuffings).

2 comments:

Monika K said...

Wow - these sound easy to make and delicious; I'll have to copy the recipe and give it a try. I've never heard of the Thai coconut dumplings in your last post but they look YUMMY! I wonder if I can find the mix in my local Asian market...

urban vegan said...

Wow! Portable yum.