Make Perfect Onigiri Every Time with This Easy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Should I let rice cool before making onigiri? ›

While the best rice for onigiri is freshly steamed from the rice cooker and so hot as to hurt a little, Tomioka suggests that you may also cool it slightly before forming. 1. Start by preparing two small bowls: one filled with water and the other with some good quality salt.

Japanese short-grain rice holds its shape better and produces grains that are just sticky enough to form cohesive onigiri. Wetting your hands in a saltwater mixture prevents the grains from sticking to your fingers as you shape the onigiri and helps to season the rice ball.

You can wrap the finished onigiri (in plastic wrap) with a thick kitchen towel. The kitchen towel protects the rice balls from being too cold in the refrigerator. Rice gets hard in the refrigerator but with this easy trick, your onigiri will be cool enough to stay safe.

Dip hands in water and rub salt over hands. Take a handful of warm rice and form it into a ball; gently squish with your hands into an "L" or "C" shape, then apply gentle pressure to the sides to shape it into a triangle. Wrap a strip of nori around the triangle, using a bit of water to help it stick if necessary.

This mainly depends on the filling as well as how much salt you use on the surface when you make the onigiri. If you use tuna with mayonnaise or any filling with mayonnaise in it, do not keep more than a day to be safe.

Onigiri is attracting attention as an inexpensive, healthy food. The basic ingredients of onigiri are rice, seaweed and salt making it easy to eat for people who follow religious dietary restrictions or are vegetarians.

You can prepare them up to two days in advance, bundle tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Pack them in lunch boxes or a picnic basket and enjoy at room temperature.

1. Tuna Mayo. Tuna mayo onigiri — amusingly the “chicken of the sea” in Japanese — may in fact be the most popular of all onigiri flavors, not to mention one of the easiest to make.

You can use leftover rice or frozen rice for this recipe but be sure it's warm before making onigiri as cold rice doesn't adhere well together. Long-grain rice such as Jasmine rice is not recommended as it's not sticky enough to hold together.

Onigiri, or Omusubi as they are known in eastern Japan, are a great way to use your perfectly cooked Japanese steamed rice. Unlike sushi, we never use vinegar flavouring in the recipe but instead stir some salt into the rice and sprinkle a little salt on the outside.

What can I use instead of rice for onigiri? ›

For sushi or onigiri, if you really can't acquire short grain rice, you could make do with Calrose or similar medium grain rice. Calrose is reasonably flavorful, after cooking is soft and sticky, and is not so very different in texture from Japanese short grain rice.

The one rule of onigiri is...

If you can't get a hold of Japanese rice (also commonly sold as 'susi rice'), Italian medium-grain rices uses for risotto like vialone (which is the most like Japanese urichi-mai), arborio and so on can be used. Long grain type rice just will not stick together sufficiently.

Sushi rice should not be used hot. Allow the rice to cool down for at least five minutes before being used. If it doesn't cool correctly, not only will it be difficult to get it to maintain its shape, but the residual heat could affect the flavor and texture of the raw ingredients in the sushi.

Sushi rice is less of a type of rice than it is a preparation method. It's cooked short-grain white rice combined with rice vinegar and other ingredients, cooled completely, and then used to make sushi rolls.

If you have leftover rice that you want to store in the fridge, you can do so by following these simple steps: As cooked rice is moist, it is a breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria. With this in mind, it's important that you cool your rice fully before preparing it for storage.

Cooked rice is very moist, which can be a breeding ground for bacteria growth if it is left at room temperature for more than two hours. Play it safe and cool down any leftover rice quickly—either by spreading it out on a baking sheet, or placing it immediately in the refrigerator.