yaki (grilled) onigiri

leah | 03.28.2020

we ate a lot of beer cheese dip and bread earlier today so we wanted something easy and not heavy for dinner. this future neighbor video gave us a starting point. i just put in whatever sounded good. fyi, this is still really good even if you use totally plain rice with no seasonings or add-ins and just soy sauce to brush on top.

method:

• cook 1 standard cup of sushi rice or similar short grained rice (not gonna tell you how to do this, it's too dependent on your exact stove/pot)
• once its cool enough to handle, use a rice paddle to mix in seasonings. i used a little bit of rice vinegar, a couple tsp of sesame oil, sesame seeds, and harissa seasoning (sriracha would be good instead of this). i also added a small can of tuna, drained.
• form into triangles or balls, whatever you can manage. i use a triangular onigiri maker from daiso. i got 5 triangles and a little ball out of this amount of rice.
• mix a tbsp or so of soy sauce with little sugar and honey in a small bowl or ramekin.
• heat up a tbsp or two of oil in a nonstick pan and put in the rice balls. i did 3 at a time. they won't brown all that well but once you get a little, flip and cook the other side.
• now brush the top with the soy sauce mixture and flip. cook for little bit. keep brushing and flipping until they look good.
• you can wrap with nori if you want but otherwise, that's it!