It’s a lazy Sunday and we had Onigiris for lunch! Onigiris are rice balls which are very easy to prepare. They can be made with any ingredients and can be mold into any shape.

The ingredients I used were 1 cup Japanese/ sushi rice, a packet of bamboo shoot rice mix (from a supermarket in Tokyo), sanshio furikake (Japanese pepper similar to Sichuan pepper), bonito flakes and seaweed.

I’ve an Onigiri mold which I got from Japan many years ago. It’s plastic, really easy to use, and it’s non stick. Love it!

I washed the rice about 5 times, between each rinse, rub the grains to ‘polish’ them. Put enough water to cover the rice (approx 1.25 cups of water to 1 cup of rice). Add the seasoning and bamboo shoots. As I wanted to make onigiris, I had to cut the bamboo shoots into smaller pieces.

Cook rice with mixture in rice cooker and when done, let it steam for another 10min. Then add the other ingredients – furikake, bonito and seaweed. Mix well.

Using the onigiri mold, put slightly more rice and cover with the base to ensure a compact riceball can be made. Press tightly and dispense the rice ball using the triangular ‘lever’ to push rice ball from mold. Tada! Perfectly shaped onigiris!