Saionji's Teriyaki Onigiri

[gurdymonkey]

Onigiri (rice balls) probably started as soldier's rations. In their simplest form, it's just rice and salt, cooked and rolled into a ball or nowadays molded into a shape, suitable for carrying away to eat later. They are the ultimate Japanese fast food and nowadays come with all sorts of ingredients added.

Here's how I make 'em.

Two boneless, skinless chicken breasts  (or a similar amount of salmon filet which is also yummy) and any generic teriyaki sauce will do. Marinate 'em. Toss 'em in the oven until done. Cool. Cut or tear into small pieces.

2 cups glutinous sushi rice
3 cups water
Soak rice for about 15 minutes, then start heating your water. As soon as it hits a rolling boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes. Be sure to go give it a stir every several minutes so it doesn't scorch and stick to the bottom of the pot. Turn off the heat, let it stand covered for another ten minutes. Sprinkle two  tablespoons of rice vinegar over the rice and give it another stir. Dump in your shredded chicken (or fish) and a bit of sauce and stir into the rice so it's well mixed.

At this point, reach into the pot and carefully see if you can touch the rice with your hands without getting burned. It needs to be cool enough for you to handle to roll the onigiri. For the next part, I set my rice pot in the sink (with the plug in so no stray rice clogs up my landlord's pipes), with a bowl for the onigiri on the counter to the left, a bowl or pan of water in the sink next to the rice pot and a salt shaker to my right.

Wet your hands in the bowl - sprinkle your left hand generously with salt, put down the salt shaker, rub your hands together and grab a handful of warm rice mixture. Form it into a ball.* Set it in a bowl, wet hands, salt and repeat until you're out of rice mixture.

Optional garnishes may include sesame seeds, furikake, seaweed strips. Or not.

I find that if you get your onigiri into plastic containers or ziplocks and immediately into the refrigerator while still warm, the resulting condensation inside the container will keep the rice moist for several days.

If I'm serving to people who have never had onigiri and might be nervous about taking a whole one, I tend to go with a golf ball sized onigiri as a non-intimidating portion. If you're feeling creative and sculptural, you can easily do "hockey pucks" or even the classic triangular wedge. If sculpting is not your thing, they do make molds for onigiri.  

Comments

[aeddie.livejournal.com]

So the chicken is mixed throughout the rice? I've seen, and made, rice balls with the filling in the middle surrounded by rice. Being the white boy that I am, I just called them rice balls. Are there different names for having the filling in the middle as opposed to mixed in or does onigiri work for both?

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

There may be a different name, but I do not know it.

I like this method because if I proportion the ingredients correctly, I can make these carb bombs carry a higher protein load and still maintain structural integrity. When one is making golf-ball sized onigiri as opposed to the larger "single serving" kind, it's too easy for the rice to overpower the filling otherwise. And on that note, I'm going to see if the rice is cool enough to start working on batch 2.

[elmunadi.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, in Narita City (the town near the Tokyo Intl Airport), the local sidewalk shops around the train station tend to call them (O)musubi vs (O)nigiri. The terms do seem interchangeable unless one's talking about Spam Musubi in Western Seas (I've never heard of it being called Spam Nigiri).

Have you done the Heian thang and made them into rectangular blocks of Tonjiki to feed the lower classes?

Also... Do you happen to know when the triangle shapes came into play?

and... yum! Whenever I'm working out of our Tokyo office, I pick up onigiri (salmon & plum, usually), for a snack, especially on the limo busride to/from NRT or Haneda.

Do I look like a historic cookery geek to you?

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

No, I've never made Tonjiki. Though I suppose I could by molding it in a brownie pan, easily enough.

Not sure how old or new the triangular wedges actually are.

I didn't research this. It's just lunch for a buncha guys VERY loosely based on samurai subsistence rations. ;-D

Re: Do I look like a historic cookery geek to you?

[elmunadi.livejournal.com]

(Squinting)... well, you look more like a historic clothing fan, though you could have fooled me into thinking you're a foodie, too.

No worries either way. If your crew run around at war like most, they'll burn the carbs up whether they're triangular, egg-shaped, round, or squished - as long as the food passes the 10 foot rule, neh?

Re: Do I look like a historic cookery geek to you?

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

And we can use the leftovers as siege ammunition!

[mojuko.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I have never tried onigiri with teriyaki chicken, sounds great. I make onigiri with any leftover rice I have from day to day, one of the pleasures of a rice cooker. My favorite are umeboshi onigiri.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

It's yummy - and if you get the mutant Godzilla chicken breasts that we do around here, you can save a hunk of it out of the onigiri and have it for dinner, which is what I did.

[takadai-no-tora.livejournal.com]

I like to mix the ingredients into the rice balls, but I usually use the mold and make hockey pucks--they're nice to serve grilled, makes the outside a little toasty, as a change from serving them cold. I've never tried teriyaki salmon onigiri, but they sound good.

[emma7926.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to try this. Please bear with me for a basic question, though - re "toss 'em in the oven until they're done" for the chicken breasts - At what temperature? For roughly how long? This is the sort of thing I haven't really come to terms with in cooking for one.

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

350 degrees, check 'em at the 30 minute mark? That's usually plenty in my oven. Depending on the calibration on yours, you may like to check sooner or later.

If the idea of being elbow deep in rice Play Doh appeals to you, this is actually a fun recipe.