Recipe
Onigiri: Japanese rice balls
The quintessential Japanese snack: warm rice shaped into a triangle, filled with salmon, tuna mayonnaise or salted plum, and wrapped in nori.
Edited by EMA
Original JAPANITIES recipe. Results may vary with ingredients and equipment.
Checked on: · Source : JAPANITIES editorial recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g uncooked Japanese rice (or about 450 g cooked rice, see the “Japanese rice” recipe)
- Fine salt
- 1 sheet of nori, cut into 4 strips
- Fillings of your choice (1–2 tsp per onigiri): flaked salted grilled salmon; drained canned tuna mixed with a little mayonnaise; pitted umeboshi (salted plum); simmered kombu (tsukudani)
- A bowl of cold water
Preparing the fillings
- Salmon: remove the skin and bones from 60 g of cooked salmon, flake it, salt lightly if needed and let it cool.
- Tuna mayonnaise: drain 70 g of tuna thoroughly and mix with 1 tbsp mayonnaise.
- Ume: pit 2 umeboshi and chop them roughly. Start with a small amount because they are salty.
- Allow 1–2 tsp per onigiri. Close the rice completely around the filling.
Method
- Cook the rice and let it cool for a few minutes: it should be hot enough to hold together, but not scalding.
- Spread the rice on clean cling film and season with a little salt. Salt does not make storage at room temperature safe.
- Take about 110 g of rice (one large ball). Make a small well in the centre with your thumb and put in the filling.
- Close the rice over the filling and press gently, turning the ball in your hands. For the triangle: one hand cupped, the other shaped like a “roof”, then 3 light presses, turning a third of a turn each time.
- Wrap the onigiri in a strip of nori at the last moment so it stays crisp.
Tips
- Press just enough for the ball to hold: pressed too hard, the rice becomes pasty and tough.
- Cool the rice quickly and refrigerate it, ideally within the hour. Carry it with an ice pack, avoid leaving it at room temperature for long and eat it the same day.
- Rice hardens in the fridge: 10–15 seconds in the microwave makes it soft again.
- Variation without filling: the “shio” onigiri is simply salted, perfect with miso soup.
Wine pairing
A fresh suggestion for salmon or tuna fillings; adapt the wine if you use a very sour ume plum. The editors’ suggestion is based on the flavours of the dish and the style of the wine: adapt it to your taste.
- Worth trying: dry white Entre-deux-Mers
- At the wine shop, say which style you want: dry, lightly oaked or with supple tannins.