Japan · 60 min · Fish · Main course · For confident cooks
Onigiri
In English: Rice balls
For 4 servings · US units
Filled rice triangles with umeboshi and tuna mayo, wrapped in nori
Onigiri, also called omusubi, are Japanese rice balls shaped by hand from warm short-grain rice with salted palms, a savoury filling at the centre and a strip of nori to hold on to. Here the cores are sharp, salty umeboshi and creamy tuna mayonnaise, with salmon, takuan or katsuobushi if you feel like it. They're everyday food and the classic bento filler: a meal you eat with your hands, and one that keeps a day or two in an airtight tin.
Ingredients
- 10½ ozuncooked, rinsed until the water runs clearJapanese short-grain rice, often sold as sushi rice, which cooks up soft and slightly sticky.Substitute: Californian medium-grain rice comes very close and is often cheaper. Pudding rice is also short-grain but turns too soft and mushy, and risotto rice keeps a firmer core; both are only a stopgap, while long-grain rice such as basmati or jasmine does not stick and will not work.Read more
- 2 cupswaterfor cooking the rice
- saltfor moistening the hands and seasoning the surface
- 3cut into strips for wrappingRoasted seaweed pressed into thin, paper-like sheets, savoury and lightly briny.Substitute: For rolling or wrapping there is no workable substitute, since nothing else has the same form and strength. As a crumbled seasoning, aonori or furikake will do, carrying the taste of the sea but not the roasted note or the texture of the sheets.Read more
- 4pitted, used as fillingJapanese ume fruit cured in salt and dried, often coloured with red shiso: intensely sour, very salty, soft.Substitute: There is no truly equivalent substitute, because the combination of sharp acidity, salt and ume aroma does not occur elsewhere. Umeboshi paste replaces whole fruit without compromise; ume vinegar provides salt and acidity in dressings and rice, but not the flesh. Preserved lemon or lemon juice with salt gives acidity and salt, but tastes of citrus rather than ume.Read more
- 5¼ ozCanned tunadrained, for the mayo filling
- 3 tbspmayonnaisemixed with the tuna
- 1 tbspsoy sauceto season the filling
- 7 ozsalmoncooked and flaked, alternative filling (optional)
- 4 tbspfor rolling the finished rice balls (optional)A Japanese seasoning sprinkled over rice, usually made of toasted sesame, nori, salt and a little sugar, often with bonito flakes.Substitute: A simple blend is easy to make at home from toasted sesame, finely crumbled nori, salt and a pinch of sugar, with bonito flakes if you like. This matches the basic style well but not varieties with egg, salmon or shiso; sesame and salt alone lack the sea flavour and umami.Read more
- 1¾ ozfinely chopped, mixed into the rice (optional)Japanese pickled daikon radish, usually bright yellow, crunchy, sweet and salty with a pungent aroma.Substitute: Korean danmuji, the yellow radish used in kimbap, is practically the same thing, just usually sweeter and milder, and is often found in Korean shops. At a pinch, thin strips of daikon can be pickled overnight in sugar, rice vinegar, salt and a pinch of turmeric: the crunch, colour and sweetness come close, but the matured, pungent depth of the rice bran is missing.Read more
- 1 tbspsesame seedsmixed into the rice or for rolling (optional)
- ⅛ ozmixed with soy sauce as filling (optional)Paper-thin shavings of dried, smoked and fermented bonito fish, smoky and deeply savoury.Substitute: There is no true substitute, since the combination of smoke and fish savouriness is unique. For dashi, kombu alone or with dried shiitake makes a vegetarian broth that lacks the smoky, fishy note; as a topping on dishes, bonito flakes cannot be meaningfully replaced.Read more
- 1 tspSrirachafor a spicy filling (optional)
Method
- Rinse the riceRinse the short-grain rice in a bowl with cold water, changing the water several times until it stays clear, then drain it well. If you like, let it soak in water for 30 minutes afterwards.
- Cook the riceBring the rice and the measured water to the boil in a pot, then cover and cook over low heat for 12 to 20 minutes without lifting the lid.
- Rest and fluff the riceTake the pot off the heat and let the rice stand, still covered, for another 10 to 15 minutes. Then fluff it gently with a spoon or spatula.
- Prepare the fillingsMeanwhile, prepare the fillings: pit the umeboshi and chop them roughly, and stir the drained tuna together with the mayonnaise and soy sauce. For the other versions, cook the salmon fillet and flake it, squeeze out the takuan and chop it finely, or toss the katsuobushi with a little soy sauce.
- Cut nori and set upCut the nori sheets into strips. Set up your work space: a bowl of water, a bowl of salt, the warm rice, the fillings and the nori strips lined up side by side.
- Fill the riceWet your hands with water and rub them with salt. Take a portion of the still-warm rice into your palm, press a hollow into it with your fingers, set the filling inside and close it over with a little more rice.
- Press into shapePress the rice firmly but gently into a triangle or a ball — just tight enough that it holds together without turning pasty.
- Wrap and finish the restWrap a strip of nori around it, or roll the rice ball in furikake or sesame seeds. Carry on the same way with the remaining rice and fillings.
Tips and variations
Instead of a core, the ingredients can be mixed straight through the rice — chopped takuan with sesame, say, or mashed umeboshi. One alternative filling uses salmon, pan-fried, glazed with soy sauce, mirin, sake and brown sugar, then flaked. Another turns the tuna mayo spicy with sriracha, spring onions and lemon zest. Kimchi, squeezed dry and finely chopped, makes a filling of its own. If the rice is too hot to shape in your hand, press it into a small bowl lined with cling film. For neat triangles, sharpen the edges with the flat side of a wet knife. Rather than rubbing the salt into your hands, you can also scatter it over the finished onigiri. They're good fresh and lukewarm, briefly chilled, or made up to two days ahead — in an airtight tin for the bento box or to take along.
Allergens
Contains: Eggs, Fish, Cereals containing gluten, Soybeans
May contain if you use the optional ingredients: Sesame
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
