Tips for making better onigiri?

25 comments

1. My current recipe:

   – Let rice soak in water + rice vinegar for 30 mins
   – Cook rice and fluff
   – Mix 1 can tuna/salmon with Japanese style sesame mayonaizu and under 1tsp soy sauce
   – Form onigiri, wrap with nori, sprinkle with furikake

   Any tips to improve my onigiri? I make them almost every day and I learn new things each time, like soaking the rice before cooking.

   I’ve been reluctant to try other fillings because canned tuna is just so easy. Any other simple fillings to prep that I could find ingredients for at a small Chinese market?

2. When forming the onigiri, wet your hands with salted water. The rice won’t stick to your hands and it adds some flavor.

3. I’m just here looking for tips on how to get as good as you are.

4. Walnut paste and miso filled

   Or the above mixed with wilted spinach

5. They look a little compacted to me, the best ones I’ve had are super fluffy!

6. Sear some spam with oyster sauce and throw it inside. Then top it with furikake. I don’t even like spam by itself. But when you make it this way it’s incredible. I usually make spam musubi but it would probably work well with this too.

7. How do you make the rice not fall apart?

8. place plastic wrap on surface, sprinkle some salt, add some rice, place filling in the center. Take all four corners to center and mold the rice into whatever shape you want, just don’t squeeze too hard. My Japanese mom uses this method so you don’t need to get your hands dirty! You can also pre-mix furikake in the rice. I can tell you’re using a mold though, I’d suggest less rice and absolutely no vinegar! Onigiri is a very simple comfort dish! 🙂

9. There’s a YouTube channel called Tokyo kitchen. And the lady on there makes it multiple times. Check it out, she’s got like a cupping method for it.

10. I have this Onigiri recipe that people really like and it basically involves using Shiozake, which is basically grilled salted salmon.
    [https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-cook-salmon-salted-salmon/](https://www.justonecookbook.com/how-to-cook-salmon-salted-salmon/)

    The burst of umami in it is to die for.

11. I make canned tuna/salmon onigiri too ever since I got a mold for Christmas! Other than soy sauce and mayo I also put chopped green onions, sesame oil, a tiny splash of rice vinegar, and shichimi togarashi inside them. Very delish.

12. Tuna mixture-

    Use -I know this is gross- but 1:1 ratio tuna to kewpie mayo. Add a dash of mentsuyu (consentrated soba sauce, available in most Asian supermarkets) rather than soy sauce, as there’s dashi in there and adds far more umami. Stir vigorously until tuna becomes more of a fluffy paste than flakes.

    Rice-
    As others have said, no need for vinegar for rice balls and rice should not be squashed together, you should still be able to tell one grain from another when tasting. My mum used to salt her hands as well as wet them to form the rice balls, so that you get flavour not just from the filling. I’m more of a mild person myself but the advise still applies.

    If you want to try something else, perhaps consider yaki-onigiri https://www.justonecookbook.com/yaki-onigiri-grilled-rice-ball/

13. My favorite filling since I was a kid, hands down, is andasu, which is an Okinawan condiment of reduced miso, sugar, and fatty pork until it becomes a thick paste. This is the way my grandma did it and it’s soooooooooo good. Instead of wrapping it in nori, roll it around in some furikake after you form it.

    [recipe for andasu I found online](https://katnsatoshiinjapan.blogspot.com/2014/02/andasu.html)

    [another recipe with article](http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/08/27/features/index.html)

14. These donuts are great, jelly-filled are my favourite! Nothing beats a jelly-filled donut!

15. Add aromatics when steaming the rice. Alliums and kombu are nice. Shichimi togarashi is nice to sprinkle on afterward or flavor the filling.

16. Add aromatics when steaming the rice. Alliums and kombu are nice. Shichimi togarashi is nice to sprinkle on afterward or flavor the filling.

17. They look a bit too tight in my opinion.
    Try hand molding! My mom (and I) use Saran wrap or plastic wrap to put in the rice and then shape it. Easy to put filling and then the mold size doesn’t matter.
    Also you should just try plain salt and sesame rice onigiro or yaki onigiri (grilled) so good and simple!

18. They look a bit too tight in my opinion.
    Try hand molding! My mom (and I) use Saran wrap or plastic wrap to put in the rice and then shape it. Easy to put filling and then the mold size doesn’t matter.
    Also you should just try plain salt and sesame rice onigiro or yaki onigiri (grilled) so good and simple!

19. They look a bit too tight in my opinion.
    Try hand molding! My mom (and I) use Saran wrap or plastic wrap to put in the rice and then shape it. Easy to put filling and then the mold size doesn’t matter.
    Also you should just try plain salt and sesame rice onigiri, just salmon flakes or yaki onigiri (grilled) so good and simple!

20. They look a bit too tight in my opinion.
    Try hand molding! My mom (and I) use Saran wrap or plastic wrap to put in the rice and then shape it. Easy to put filling and then the mold size doesn’t matter.
    Also you should just try plain salt and sesame rice onigiri, just salmon flakes or yaki onigiri (grilled) so good and simple!

21. More mayo in the tuna. Otherwise you’re good 👍

22. Onigiri (like Sushi) is a rice dish where the rice (not the fish) is the main, featured ingredient. The fish, filling/flavoring is there to accompany/enhance/promote the rice. As such, great care needs to be taken with the rice.

    To put things in perspective, it takes about 3 years for people who become disciples under famous sushi masters to learn just how to prepare the rice (selecting, washing, cooking, flavoring) and another 8 or so to learn how to properly shape/use the rice in a nigiri.

    Of course that’s not something the average home cook needs to dedicate their time to, but I only mention it to emphasize how important rice is in Japanese culture/cuisine.

    When shaping the onigiri, you want to take special care to make sure that the shape of each grain is preserved. So a “fluffy” onigiri with “air pockets” in between each rice grain is ideal.

    Shaping the onigiri with your hands is the preferred method as you have much more control of the shape and firmness. Firm enough so that it holds it’s form, gentle enough so that the integrity of each grain is preserved. Same thing if you’re using a device to shape the onigiri, though you won’t have as much control in this case.

    You can wet your hands to prevent onigiri from sticking but you don’t want your hands to be too wet. The rice comes out of the pot/rice cooker already in perfect condition so you don’t want to add additional moisture to it if you can help it.

    Either dip your finger tips in a bowl of water and transfer/rub the water to your palms as needed. If you run your hands under the faucet or put your entire hand in the bowl, sharply clap your hands together and that will cause excess moisture to come off. Using a wet kitchen towel is another alternative.

23. my favorite filling for onigiri, huge upgrade over tuna if a bit more expensive

    spicy mayo:
    1/4 cup kewpie mayo
    2 tablespoons of Sambal Oelek
    1 teaspoon fish sauce

    cut up 4 oz smoked salmon into little flakes
    cut up two green onions into thin disc’s
    mix salmon and green onion with a few tablespoons of spicy mayo and a dash of Wasabi salt. add more spicy mayo if the wetness isn’t to your liking

24. please this is probably a really stupid question: can onigiri be dipped in soy sauce like sushi? Sorry, I’m not sure, please answer me 🙂

25. How to cook sushi rice