Rice ball called onigiri is one of the representative Japanese home-cooked food.
Food itself is quite simple as it only has rice and fillings wrapped in seaweed. As you know, we are rice lover so a lot of our dishes are actually seasoned to be eaten with rice. So these fillings are also good to go with it. Some are sweet and salty and some are sour... you have many choices.
A great variety of onigiri is often sold for lunch or light snack and you will see a bunch of them at convenience stores in Japan. One of the most attractive points of them sold at convenience stores is crispy seaweed. Imagine you can make your own onigiri with your favorite fillings at home...
In this blog, I introduce an interesting item to make onigiri like the ones you have bought at stores.
What is Onigiri Wrapper?
Usually, homemade onigiri is a rice ball with filling you like inside, wrapped in seaweed. We make it with freshly cooked rice and wrap it in aluminum foil. This keeps damp from rice inside and make seaweed soft to educe original umami, tastiness and flavor from seaweed.
On the other hand, those that are sold at convenience stores keep rice and seaweed apart so you can always enjoy fresh and crisp seaweed. It's quite hard to make onigiri with fresh seaweed at home but we can do so easily with this onigiri wrapper.
How to make onigiri with Onigiri Wrapper
1. Make an onigiri
Onigiri is normally in the shape of triangle. What should you prepare for fillings? Any fillings can be chosen! Common ones are grilled and crumbled salmon, pickled plum, dried bonito flakes with soy sauce or tinned tuna with mayonnaise. You can even put avocado with mayonnaise, bite-sized stake or anything you feel like having with rice. Try to be creative with the ingredients you have and find out your favorite fillings!
2. Cut seaweed
Cut seaweed into the size of the onigiri wrapper.
3. Put seaweed into the film
When you put seaweed into the film, place the film to have this green slit face up.
4. Place the onigiri you made
Place the onigiri you made on the onigiri wrapper you prepared at the previous step.
5. Wrap it with the film
Fold the film and wrap rice in it.
6. Tape it in a place
Tape the edge in place at last to complete.
How to make onigiri
Here is the best part of everything… let’s eat it!
1. Open the film
Peel off the tape to open the film.
Cut the film along the green slit by hand.
2. Place the rice ball onto seaweed
Roll the rice ball towards the part of seaweed which is exposed after cutting the film. Try to place it to make one of the sides of the rice ball and lower side of the seaweed parallel. This can make the beautiful triangle in the end.
3. Wrap the rice ball with seaweed
Pull the seaweed out from the film and wrap the rice ball completely with it.
There are various ways to relish onigiri
You can enjoy fresh and crispy onigiri any time you want with this onigiri wrapper. Enjoy various and creative fillings and take advantage of its convenience. They can be exotic lunch for school or work and even interesting snack at home party. There should be a variety of ways to relish onigiri depending on your ideas.
Hope you enjoy this Japanese traditional home-cooked food at home!
