This is the first how-to and recipe that I posted on Just Hungry.

Properly cooke d rice is the foundation of a traditional Japanese meal, and you absolutely cann ot skimp on the steps detailed here if you are aiming for anything approaching a uthenticity. I've edited the text to make some things clearer. Back to basics! O riginally published in November 2003. Rice is the staple of Japanese food, and making it just right can be rather diff icult if you don't know how. If you think you will be preparing rice regularly, an electric rice cooker will make your life so much easier. (See About rice cook ers.) You can cook non-Japanese style rice and other grains in a rice cooker too . Japanese rice, or japonica rice, is a very particular variety. For traditional J apanese dishes you simply cannot substitute long-grain rice, jasmine rice, basma ti rice, Carolina type rice, and so on. I sometimes hear people saying things li ke "But I can make onigiri with jasmine rice just fine, as long as I cook it so it's mushy and the grains stick together". No no no no no. A good onigiri, a goo d sushi roll, a good nigiri-zushi, and most of all a good bowl of rice are not m ade from crushed, watery, mushy rice; they are made from slightly sticky grains of rice that are gently pushed together. In addition, jasmine rice and other typ es of rices have a flavor that is utterly different from that of japonica rice. If you serve plain jasmine rice with a Japanese meal, it will simply taste wrong . The one non-japonica variety that does work fairly well sa a substitute is Itali an vialone rice, which is a medium-grain rice similar to japonica rice. Arborio, carnaroli and the rice sold as 'pudding rice' or 'milk rice' in some countries are also medium-grain, but they tend to have too much rice starch, which is what makes that creamy texture in risotto or rice pudding. Vialone has less of that starchy coating and therefore works well. See Looking At Rice for more informati on about different types of rice. Ideally, the rice should be quite fresh. The best rice is new rice called shinma i, purchased within 3 months of harvest. Unfortunately, it's just about impossib le to buy rice that fresh outside of Japan. Just buy the best rice you can affor d. Once you learn how to make rice properly, you will really taste the differenc e between different kinds of rice. Some popular 'first grade' Japanese rice varieties include Sasanishiki, Koshihik ari and Akita Komachi. They tend to be expensive. Recipe and Procedure: Japanese style plain rice The washing and rinsing steps may seem like a bother, but they are absolutely cr itical to producing properly cooked Japanese style rice. Do not skimp on this! T his is a common mistake made by people new to Japanese cooking. To make 4 cups of cooked rice, you will need: A heavy-bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid, or an electric rice cooker 2 cups of uncooked japonica rice or 'sushi rice' (or substitute Vialone) 2 1/4 cups of water (If using a rice cooker, add water up to the specified level marked in the inner bowl) Measure out the rice carefully into your pot and rinse vigorously under running water. Swish the rice around with your hands - the water will turn a milky white color. Drain the cloudy water away and add fresh water, and swish the rice around again . Repeat this step 2 - 3 times.

Drain, leaving just a little water, and rub the grains together several times wi th the palms of your hands gently as if you were polishing them.

Add plenty of fresh water and rinse out the rice. Drain and rinse until the wate r is almost clear.

Drain the rice in a fine mesh sieve and leave for a little while, preferably at least 30 minutes.

Put rice in a rice cooker or pot. Add the water to the rice. At this point you s hould let the rice soak for a while. The length of time depends on the quality a nd freshness of the rice. The older the rice, the longer it needs to soak. Soaki ng for at least 30 minutes to an hour is generally recommended, but don't soak f or more than 8 hours or so or the rice will get a bit watery and lose any flavor . And if the weather is too hot, it might even start to ferment! (Some rice howtos emphasize the importance of soaking, but I think the washing and rinsing is the most critical part of making proper rice, which is why it's described in so much detail here.) Brown rice however does need to be soaked before cooking (see cooking brown rice). If you are using a rice cooker, just switch on (or if you need the rice later, s et the timer; you can calculate in the soaking time here.) If you are using a po t, bring to a boil over medium heat then put on a tight fitting lid. Cook on hig h for 1 minute, then reduce the heat to medium, and cook for another 4-5 minutes until you can see the surface of the rice, then reduce to low heat for about 10 minutes or until the water is completely absorbed. (Don't open the lid to peek! ) Turn up to high heat for a few seconds to get rid of any excess moisture if ne cessary. If you are using a pot, remove it from the heat and drape a cloth over the pan f or about 10-15 minutes to let it fully absorb the moisture and rest. This final step really makes a difference if you want grains that stick together but are no t mushy or watery. A good rice cooker includes this resting time in the cooking cycle, and also allows for condensation to evaporate, so you don't need the clot h draping step. Sushi rice Once you have mastered plain rice, turning it into sushi rice (shari) just requi res a few more steps. Sushi rice (called shari by sushi chefs) is rice that is f lavored with dashi, rice vinegar, and salt. Substitute cooled dashi stock for the water. Cook as per the above instructions. You will need a large bowl or plate for the next step, preferably a wooden one m ade for this purpose called a hangiri. You can buy a hangiri at any Japanese kit chen equipment store, and even from Amazon. The advantage of using a wooden hang iri is that the untreated wood absorbs excess moisture from the rice. You can al so use a large serving plate or a bowl, though that won't have the moisture-abso rbing quality. You also need a sturdy rice paddle or spatula. rice cookers come with a rice pad dle.

Take 1/4 cup of bottled or homemade sushi vinegar (sushi-zu or awase-zu, see rec ipe below). Moisten your spatula or paddle with a little of the vinegar. Turn yo ur hot rice out into the bowl or plate, Pour the sushi vinegar over the rice. Working rapidly, turn and mix the rice, taking care not to squish the grains. Yo u should use a cut-turn-fold motion sort of like when you mix in egg whites into a cake batter. This you do with one hand. With your other, rapidly fan the rice to cool it as quickly as possible. This ensures that the grains will be nice an d glossy and not mushy. Rope in an assistant to do the fanning, or else do what I do and use a hair dryer on the 'cool' setting. Keep going until the rice has a bsorbed the vinegar, and has cooled down to about body temperature (it should be just a bit warm to the touch). Important! Sushi rice should be served when it is slightly warm, or at the least at room temperature - not chilled. This is why the best nigiri-zushi (the stand ard sushi that everyone thinks of a 'sushi' - an oval ball of sushi rice topped with a piece of fish) is eaten right after it's made, at the sushi counter - coo l but not cold fish on top of the barely warm sushi rice. When making sushi at home, do not refrigerate your rice if you can avoid it; the texture and flavor rapidly deteriorate when it's chilled. If you must make your sushi rice in advance, wrap it up while it's still a bit warm in plastic wrap b efore refrigerating. The trapped moisture will help to keep the rice grains from hardenening. When you need the rice, warm up for a couple of minutes in the mic rowave, then open up to cool down again to room temperature. Recipe: Sushi vinegar mix (awase-zu) If you can't get prepared sushi vinegar you can make it thus: Mix 1/4 cup of rice vinegar or mild cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 ta blespoon of mirin, sake or sweet brandy, and 1/2 tablespoon of salt. Heat over l ow heat in a small saucepan, and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. T his is enough to flavor 4 cups of rice, so adjust the amount according to the am ount of rice you have. ONIGIRI Onigiri (rice balls) posted on 1 Dec 2003 by maki :: 162 comments [Update:] Be sure to check out my easier, neater way to make onigiri! [Another update:] See all kinds of onigiri on my new bento-only site, Just Bento . [Yet another update:] Before asking a general question about onigiri, please che ck out the Onigiri FAQ page. Chances are your answer is already there! Have a qu estion about what kind of rice to use? See Looking at different types of rice. Onigiri are rice balls, usually with a tasty filling. They are very portable, an d therefore are very popular for carry-along lunches. Part of their appeal lies in the fact that if you're Japanese, you just love the taste of rice. It's genet ic. [Edit: another word for onigiri is omusubi. I guess it just depends on what word you grew up with. In our house it was always onigiri.] Onigiri can stand on their own, or be part of a bento or boxed lunch. (For some reason it's never just called "nigiri", though bento is also called obento, whic

h is the honorific term.) Onigiri are also a great make-ahead snack for a crowd, since with the appropriate fillings they keep rather well. I remember my aunt m aking 12-cups of rice worth of onigiri at a time for the large family gatherings at New Year's or Obon (August festival to pay respect to our ancestors). Her ha nds would be bright red from the heat of the rice. She favored salted salmon (sh io zake) as the filling usually - very salty salmon in fact. Onigiri is also one of my top comfort foods. It reminds me of the ones my mother used to make for me for school outings (ensoku) as well as countless school lun ches. When we stayed at my grandmother's and my cousines and I would take trips to the Chichibu mountain area, my aunt would make huge rice balls to assuage our appetites. There's a comforting feeling of continuity with history too, because Japanese travelers have sustained themselves on those salty rice balls for hund reds of years. Like obento boxed lunches, onigiri can be elaborate creations, but the simple ve rsions the are best in my opinion. We often bring some onigiri with us on long t rain trips: it's a lot better than buying the overpriced sandwich buns from the vending carts. Yes, sometimes people look at us curiously as we bite into those soccer-ball colored balls. We don't care one bit. While I was working on writing up this entry, I came across this post by Mimi It o . Japanese people have a lot of emotional attachment to obento, and to onigiri too. Classic Onigiri For 4 fair sized rice balls, you need: 4 cups of freshly cooked Japanese-style rice (What kind of rice can you use? See Looking at different types of rice. No, you cannot use long-grain, jasmine, bas mati, or Uncle Ben's.) 2 sheets of nori seaweed, cut into 3cm/2 inch wide strips Salt Fillings. Some classic fillings are pickled plum (umeboshi), bonito flakes just moistened with soy sauce (okaka), bonito flakes mixed with pickled plum (umekaka ), flaked cooked salted salmon (shake or shiozake), cooked salty cod roe (tarako ), chopped up pickles (tsukemono), and tsukudani, various tidbits - bonito cubes , tiny clams, etc. - cooked and preserved in a strong soy-sugar-sauce. Some nontraditional fillings that work well are described below. The key to making good onigiri is to have freshly cooked, hot rice. You can't ma ke good onigiri with cold rice. Wet your impeccably clean hands with cold water, and sprinkle them with salt. Ta ke 1/4th of the rice and place on one hand. Make a dent in the middle of the ric e with your other hand. Put in about 1 tsp or so worth of filling in the dent. Working rapidly, wrap the rice around the filling, and form into a ball. To make the traditional triangular shape, cup your hand sharply to form each corner, an d keep turning it until you are happy with the shape. Practive makes perfect. Wrap the rice ball with 1-2 strips of nori seaweed. Repeat for the rest of the rice. To bring along on picnic, wrap in plastic film or in a bamboo leaf (which is tra ditional). Some people prefer to carry the nori strips separately, and to wrap t hem around the onigiri when eating, to preserve the crisp texture of the seaweed . If it's hard to get a hold of the traditional fillings, here are some non-tradit

ional ones that I have tried that work well. However, unlike the more traditiona l fillings (especially umeboshi) these fillings are quite perishable, so be care ful in hot weather if you are taking them for a picnic. Any rather strongly flav ored, salty filling should work. Ground meat (pork or beef or a mixture), cooked with grated or chopped ginger, t hen flavored with soy sauce, some red pepper flakes, sake or mirin, and sugar. I t should be quite dry. Curry flavored ground meat mixture works surprisingly wel l too. Canned tuna, well drained and flaked, flavored with a bit of soy sauce and/or sa lt to taste. Flaked corned beef Chopped up western style pickles (as long as they don't have too much garlic in the brine), well squeezed to get rid of excessive moisture For a fairly well-rounded picnic lunch that can all be eaten without utensils, a dd hard-boiled eggs (with a twist of salt) or cold barbeque chicken or skewered chicken (yakitori), an apple or orange, and vegetable sticks (carrot sticks, cel ery sticks, cucumber sticks).

The Onigiri (Omusubi) FAQ 22 Aug 2008 by maki I have written quite exhaustively about onigiri, or rice balls, here on Just Ben to as well as on Just Hungry. Many people have asked similar questions about oni giri, which seem to just be gaining and gaining in popularity these days. So I ve assembled a list of Onigiri FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). I ll update this li st when I see (or remember) other questions periodically. Basics and culture What is an onigiri? An onigiri is a savory (salty) compressed ball of rice. It o ften has a filling or a coating of something savory, but there are also onigiri made of pre-flavored/mixed rice, as well as plain rice onigiri simply made with salt. How do you pronounce it? o-NI-gi-ri (short 0 at the top, not oh or ooh) How is it written in Japanese? most often ???? (all in hiragana); very occasiona lly ??? My Japanese friend/my Japanese grandmother/my Hawaiian uncle calls it something else Onigiri are also often called omusubi (????). Some more obscure regional nam es include nigirimama and oninko. You can also drop the honorific o and call it musubi, nigiri, or nigirimeshi (which literally means hand-pressed rice . What you call it just depends on where you grew up! In Hawaii, a rice ball is called a mu subi mostly. There was a big wave of emigration from Japan to Hawaii in the late 19th century, mainly from the western/southern parts of the country, which prob ably accounts for the use of musubi. Why do anime and manga characters love onigiri so much? Onigiri is Japanese comf ort food, because Japanese people love rice. Rice is the main staple of Japanese cuisine. (In the movie Kamome Diner (kamome shokudo), discussed at length here, onigiri are called Japanese soul food , and I think that is very true.) Does an onigiri have to be a triangle? No it doesn t - it can be round, or cylinde r shaped, or anything else. There are a few purists who insist that onigiri must be triangular, but I m not one of them. See Onigiri on parade. Where can I get onigiri in Japan? Just about every supermarket and convenience s tore sells them, not to mention train station kiosks, vending machines and more. They are as common as pre-made sandwiches are in the West. (Actually you can ge t pre-made sandwiches as easily too in Japan.) Are onigiri just for bentos? In Japan, onigiri is a basic convenience food. Peop le carry them on hikes, car trips, have them for breakfast, as late night snacks e tc. Are onigiri a Japanese invention? They probably are, because of the nature of Ja

panese style rice (slightly sticky). This type of rice, also called uruchimai, c ame into wide use around the 11th or 12th centuries, and onigiri may have come i nto existence then. In China you have steamed glutinous rice wrapped in leaves, but that s a bit different from onigiri. (see okowa onigiri made from sticky rice) Is Spam Musubi Japanese? Spam musubi is a product of Hawai; it was probably crea ted by immigrants of Japanese descent. Spam was virtually unknown until fairly r ecently in much of mainland Japan. (Spam is fairly popular in Okinawa, which was occupied until the 1970s by the United States and still has a U.S. military bas e. It s also very popular in South Korea. Both regions, as far as I can find out, got their Spam habit from Americans.) Personally, I just can t make myself like Sp am in any form, so you won t see any spam musubi recipes on this site - sorry! The re are plenty of spam musubi recipes online however - see this one on Lunch In A Box, or this step by step on Cooking Cute. Nutrition How many calories are in an onigiri? It depends on how big it is or how much ric e is used to make it. A typical onigiri has about 1/2 cup of rice, so it s around 100 calories plus whatever is used for the filling. Does an onigiri have to be made with white rice? You can also make it with brown rice, as long as it s medium-grain Japonica rice or short-grain glutionous rice. See Looking at rice. Are onigiri diet food? Well, that depends on how big they are! Many people find onigiri more filling than sandwiches, but that s a subjective thing of course. How to make onigiri What s the key to making good onigiri? The base ingredient of onigiri is the corre ct type of rice, cooked properly. A rice cooker can be very helpful for doing th is. See how to wash and cook rice properly using a rice cooker or on the stove, and more about rice cookers. Do I have to use Japanese rice? What about jasmine rice (or other types of rice) ? An onigiri has to stay in a ball shape, so the rice has to be glutinous enough that the grains stick together. That means that long grain rice types like jasm ine and basmati are not, I repeat not, suited to onigiri. (I feel very strongly about this.) Sure, mushy, overcooked rice will glue together if you mash it hard enough, but it will not taste nice at all. The most suitable types of rice for onigiri are medium grain or short grain. See Looking at rice for different types of rice. If you can t get Japanese type rice (or sushi rice) easily where you live, Italian rices used for risotto can be substituted. How do I make onigiri? There are very detailed instructions for how to make them with your bare hands, plus an easier way using plastic wrap. JustBento reader S amantha contributed this great method of making onigiri in a plastic bag, using the corners! You can also use handy molds/moulds: Cooking Cute has a nice step b y step tutorial. Recent onigiri molds come in a handy scooper shape which makes making onigiri in all kinds of cute shapes even easier. Example: these Hello Kit ty molds, and the colorful mini onigiri I made with them. Does an onigiri have to have a filling? No it doesn t! The most basic type of onig iri is a shio musubi (????), a plain rice onigiri with salt on the outside. This is the kind of onigiri that was carried around in feudal times by samurai and f oot soldiers on the warpath. It s a great way to enjoy simple, well cooked good ri ce. What are traditional onigiri fillings? A list and photos of the most common trad itional fillings are on the Onigiri on Parade page. The top three traditional fi llings are: umeboshi (pickled plums), shake (salted salmon - how to make your ow n from fresh salmon) and okaka (katsuobushi or bonito flakes flavored with soy s auce). Non-traditional fillings? Anything you can imagine! Some suggestions that reader s have made in the past include: chopped up olives, anchovies, pickles, a small meatball, cooked chicken, sausage meat, chopped up Spam, corned beef as long as i t s not too wet, compact and a bit salty, anything can be a good onigiri filling. Help! My onigiri fall apart! This could either be due to using the wrong kind of

rice (long grain rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice, etc. are not sticky enough t o make a rice ball with), improper cooking of rice (it should not be too dry/har d OR too sticky/gluey) or using a filling that s so oily or watery that the oil/wa ter seeps out into the rice, making it fall apart. Do onigiri have to be wrapped in nori seaweed? No they don t, though a wrapping do es help to keep the rice together. Again see Onigiri on parade. If you want to g o wrapping-less but your onigiri falls apart before you can eat it, try transpor ting them wrapped in plastic wrap. You can even buy special cute onigiri wrappin g film! I hate nori alternative wrappers? A popular wrapper is salted fresh shiso leaves. (I must confess that when I was a kid, I hated nori! But now as an adult I love it, so it is quite possibly an acquired taste.) Other wrappers include tororo ko mbu (a thin, salty form of kombu seaweed) and usuyaki tamago (thin omelettes). Onigiri safety and transport Can I freeze onigiri, and if so how? Yes onigiri can be frozen very successfully . Just wrap them individually in plastic wrap (cling film), and then in a freeze r box or bag to protect it from freezer burn. You can defrost the onigiri in the refrigerator gradually, at room temperature, or zap it in the microwave. See Ke eping onigiri fresh and more Don t keep frozen onigiri in the freezer for too long , or they will eventually get freezer burn. How do I prevent onigiri from getting dried out? Keep them well covered/wrapped up. How long do onigiri last in the refrigerator? How do you keep them safe to eat? This mainly depends on the filling as well as how much salt you use on the surfa ce when you make the onigiri. If you use tuna with mayonnaise or any filling wit h mayonnaise in it, do not keep more than a day to be safe. If you use tradition al fillings, especially umeboshi (pickled salty plums) they will last a lot long er, but no more than a couple of days. Umeboshi has natural antibacterial qualit ies, so is the ideal filling for onigiri that have to be held for some time - sa y, made the evening before to be eating or lunch on the road the next day. In any case, you should make onigiri with adequate salt on the outside, complete ly cooked fillings (never ever used raw/uncured fish or rare meat) and always us e freshly cooked (ideal) or defrosted/reheated rice. If the weather is very warm and humid and you have used spoilable fillings such as tuna/mayo, consider pack ing your onigiri with an icepack (see Summer Bento Safety). You shouldn t eat onigiri that has been around outside of proper refrigeration for more than a day. Anecdotally, I have eaten onigiri that was a day old (made the morning before and eaten for breakfast) that had been in packed in a paper back and thrown on the back seat of a car, not in a cooler, and survived without any problems (it was in the fall, not midsummer), but you shouldn t do this regularly ! The fillings used that time were umeboshi and salty salmon, for what it s worth - no tuna-mayo or crab salad or other highly perishable filling. (I ve seen a note on this ehow.com page that blithely states that you can store oni giri refrigerated for up to a week . No you can not! Please, use common sense and be safe not sorry. ) Other questions Can I use sweet fillings for onigiri? Fundamentally you can use anything you lik e - it s your food! However, in Japan if you make a ball of rice (which is often s weetened itself, and pounded partly or fully to a sticky paste or dough) and fil led with something sweet it becomes confectionery or wagashi. Some wagashi that take the rice-with-sweet-filling form include daifuku, mochi of various kinds, y atsuhashi and so on. The wagashi that s closest to the idea of a sweet onigiri is probably ohagi or botamochi, glutinous rice onigiri of sorts which are filled, cov ered or both with sweet bean paste, kinako (toasted soy bean powder), sesame see ds and so on. So, to Japanese sensibilities an onigiri is something savory, not sweet. What s the difference between sushi and onigiri? Again it s a matter of how things a

re normally categorized in Japanese cooking, but generally speaking anything mad e with vinegar flavored rice, or sushi rice (sushi meshi or shari) iis sushi. So you could make an onigiri-shaped item with shari, and call it an onigiri, but i f a Japanese person ate it s/he would probably think it s sushi in an onigiri shap e. Nigiri-zushi, the best known sushi shape with a little ball of rice topped wi th fish or something else, is sushi that has been shaped with the hands (nigiru) - the same word that forms part of the word onigiri.