Onigiri (Japanese Rice Balls) and Miso Soup

Onigiri is a Japanese rice ball, often formed into a triangular shape and can be found in most convenience stores in Japan with various fillings and flavours.

(My 7-11 purchases in Japan)

When I travel, eating is one of the most important experiences – taking in the food culture of a country, trying out new foods not available at home, finding the best places to eat and eating authentic food (because nothing is more authentic than eating Japanese food in Japan, getting served by Japanese people and communicating your order in broken Japanglish). Traveling is also an excuse to eat more than your average three meals a day. But eating is amongst a whole bunch of other realities of traveling – figuring out the transport system, trying to take in as many of the sights and attractions the city has to offer, shopping (aka buying tacky souvenirs), conversing with the locals, avoiding scams/being assaulted and getting your bag snatched, sleeping, respecting the local culture/customs/etiquette, meeting other travellers, adjusting to different time zones every few days as you travel between cities… When you are traveling, sometimes you only have time for a quick snack in between getting up and hopping on your next train to your next destination (umm….temple #32).

Onigiri became a daily snack for me while I was traveling around Japan. I found it amazing how the onigiri was packaged with the nori stored separately from the rice so that the nori would remain crisp. It took some practice to know how to eat one properly.

See video here -

I have found that onigiri is quite easy to make at home and fun too when you realize that the rice is kind of like play dough and the possibilities for shaping your rice are endless.

Ingredients

•    cooked plain hot sushi rice
•    nori (seaweed)
•    Onigiri fillings (anything can be mixed into the rice as long as it’s not too moist or oily which will make the rice grains fall apart)
-    tuna (canned) seasoned with pepper and mixed with mayonnaise

-    white and black sesame seeds
-    furikake (Japanese mixed savoury flakes)

 

Method

I made two different type of onigiri. The onigiri needs made while the rice is hot so it will stick together and be easier to shape. 

Onigiri with furikake

I followed the instructions on the back of the furikake packet to make onigiri. I can't read Japanese but the pictures were pretty self explanatory. 

Transfer hot sushi rice into a bowl and add in some furikake. I didn’t know how much furikake to put in so I just added in a little at a time and mixed it all together, and tasted until I thought that the flavours were right. Make sure that you taste as you go and don’t add in too much in the one go as the furikake can make the onigiri quite salty. 

An easy way to shape onigiri which I learnt from the food blog Just Hungry is to use a small bowl/tea cup and plastic wrap.

Line the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap that’s big enough to hang well over the sides. Press the plastic wrap into the bowl.

Add some furikake rice mix into the bowl (the amount added depends on how big you want the balls to be). Gather up the ends of the plastic wrap and twist and squeeze, pushing out any excess air. Twist tightly to form a ball shape, pressing the rice grains to make them stick together.  

Untwist the plastic wrap and your onigiri is done! You can continue to reuse the plastic wrap for the rest of the rice.

Triangle shaped onigiri filled with tuna

Line the bowl with a piece of plastic wrap that’s big enough to hang well over the sides. Press the plastic wrap into the bowl.

Sprinkle the inside of the bowl with a little water and shake out the excess into the sink. Sprinkle the inside of the wetted, plastic lined bowl with a little salt and shake out any excess salt.

Fill the bowl with hot sushi rice. Poke a hole in the middle of the rice, about halfway down in depth. Add in some tuna and lightly press the rice over the filling. 

Gather up the ends of the plastic wrap and twist and squeeze, pushing out any excess air. 

To make the triangle shape, form a L shape with one hand and make three corners on the ball. Use the other hand to turn the ball and squeeze, turn, squeeze and turn until you get the desired triangle shape. 

Wrap the triangle onigiri with a piece of nori just as you are about to eat it so that the nori remains crisp.

When I was in Japan last year I bought a fish and car egg shaper. I have used it to shape boiled eggs with varying degrees of success, it’s quite difficult to get the egg to replicate the mould. 

I thought it would be cool to try using these moulds to make onigiri. 

 

This is how the fish turned out. I used some black sesame seeds for an eye and white sesame seeds for scales.

I don’t think that the car turned out as well as the fish as it was hard to get all the imprints.

To accompany the onigiri I made some miso soup.

Recipe for Miso Soup

Ingredients

Dashi Stock
•    3 cups water
•    10cm square piece kombu (dried kelp)
•    10-15g/3-4 T of katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes)
Miso Soup
•    2 tablespoon miso paste (mix of 1 ½ tablespoon white miso and ½ red miso or to taste)
•    ½ a block tofu, cut into 1.5cm cubes
•    5g dried wakame
•    finely chopped spring onion for garnish

Method

Dashi Stock

Using scissors, make a few snips into the kombu to help release the flavours. Place water and kombu in a saucepan and soak for at least 30 minutes (the kombu will soften and expand).

Place the pan over medium heat and slowly bring to the boil. Just before it reaches boiling point, remove the kombu and discard. Add the katsuobushi to the pot, boil for 30 seconds. Turn the heat off and let steep for 5 minutes.

Strain dashi stock through a fine sieve. Do not squeeze out the flakes, as this will make the stock cloudy and very fishy.

Miso Soup

Soak the wakame in cold water for 10 minutes. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Cut into bite-sized pieces.

Heat dashi stock in a pan and dissolve miso in a cup of the stock and pour back into remaining stock in the pan, making sure the stock does not boil after the miso is added (if the miso boils, the flavour will be altered).

Add tofu and wakame and heat through gently.

Serve the miso soup in a bowl, garnished with finely chopped spring onions.

You can read about my Japanese travel adventures and food endeavours here (under the Other tab)

Truffle Congee with Dried Scallops

A popular way of using truffle is to make a risotto. It's even better if the truffle has been stored in the risotto rice, so that the rice is infused with the aroma of the truffles. Instead of using risotto rice to store my fresh truffle, I used jasmine rice. One of the dishes that I wanted to cook with truffle was rice congee. Truffles contain umami and I usually make my rice congee with dried scallops which is also rich in umami, I thought that these two elements would work well together. Similar to truffles, dried scallops are considered a delicacy and are expensive to buy, and you only need to use a little for cooking because it has a very strong and complex flavour which enhances many dishes.

 (dried scallops which have been soaked overnight)

I stored some fresh truffle with some jasmine rice for for a few days so the rice was permeated with the lovely aroma of truffles. 

To make rice congee, you basically boil rice in a lot of water for a long time until the rice breaks down into a creamy consistency like a thick soup.

I decided to make the truffle rice congee using a clay pot. This was the first time that I had used a clay pot to make congee. I thought that it would be good to use a clay pot  as it keeps foods cooking at a low simmer and retains moisture, so it's seems like a perfect cooking vessel for making congee. I washed and rinsed the rice that I had been infusing with truffle three times and then put it in a clay pot along with some dried scallops which I had soaked overnight. As I washed the rice I could smell the truffle aroma in the water. 

Rice congee is generally cooked with hot water and flavoured with meat or bones. For my truffle congee I used some chicken stock to provide flavour. I put the clay pot on the stove, turned the heat onto low-medium and added in the water the dried scallops had been soaking in and a few ladles of chicken stock until halfway up the side of the pot, and let it slowly simmer, half covered, checking now and then, and stirring occasionally so that the rice grains do not stick to the bottom of the pot. As I stirred, the dried scallops would break up into pieces. When I saw that the stock had dried up, I checked the consistency of the rice and added in more stock, and continued simmering and adding in more stock until I got the desired consistency. 

I seasoned the congee with some salt and fish sauce at the end. Altogether I used 1 cup of rice and about 1.5 litres of chicken stock, and the cooking time was around 50 minutes. Cooking the rice congee in this way is similar to cooking a risotto as I ladle in the stock as I go. You can also add in all the stock at the beginning with the rice and then just let it simmer. There are no hard and fast rules for the ratio of rice to water in making congee, different recipes will give you different amounts and it also depends on the cooking vessel (slow cooker, rice cooker, saucepan, pressure cooked) you are using and the consistency you desire. Some like a more watery and soupy congee (thus, more water/sock needs to be added), while others like a thicker texture. Adding in the stock overtime allowed me to monitor the cooking process and add in as much stock as I felt was needed. 

 This is the consistency to aim for.

After I achieved my desired consistency. I ladled the congee into a bowl, grated some fresh truffle over the top and garnished with coriander. 

Rice congee with dried scallops + fresh truffles = Comfort food that has become the ultimate food!

I’ve read that the release of truffle essences and flavours start at 27C, and the best release of exposed truffle is between 60C-80C. When you add some truffle on top of hot meals, the heat helps to release the flavour of the truffle into the food. 

It’s amazing how just a little scatter of truffles can transform and enhance the flavour of a simple dish.

I was really happy with how the truffles tasted in the rice congee. Season with a little salt and pepper, stir and all the flavours are amplified. 

Stirring in the truffle.

Here are some of my other truffle recipes:

• Truffle Scrambled Eggs - Two Ways
• Truffle Pasta with Alfredo Sauce and Sauteed Mushrooms
• Seared Scallops on Celeriac Puree with Truffle
• Truffle Honey Panna Cotta

Related post

• Mundaring Truffle Festival

Comfort Food #2 - Rice Congee and Pressure Cooking

Rice congee is a popular Chinese breakfast and frequently eaten as a late supper dish (if you are living Hong Kong, you would be able to pop out to a food stall and easily get some as a late night snack), and you will also find it served at Dim Sim. It is rice boiled in a lot of water for a long time until the rice breaks down into a creamy consistency like a thick soup. The consistency of rice congee varies depending on the amount of water used - it can be quite watery or more soupy with a texture similar to lentil soup, or be thicker with a texture like Western oatmeal porridge. 


Rice congee is another one of my favourite comfort foods. I often have rice congee when I am sick and love eating it when the weather is cold. My fondest memories of rice congee are whenever I had major dental surgery like when I had to get braces to realign my back teeth or when I got my wisdom teeth out and I could not eat solid food. My mum would cook rice congee for me everyday and I would eat it for three meals a day….and I just felt content. During those times I didn’t care that I could not eat any other food as long as I could continue eating my rice congee.


Rice congee is great food therapy when you are unwell. If you are ill or recovering from an illness you usually have a poor appetite. Rice congee is warm, hearty, nourishing and easy to digest. Having it when you are sick helps to improve your appetite and provides you with much needed nutrients.


Because rice congee is soft and easily digestible, it is one of the first solid foods served to young infants, it is also commonly eaten by the elderly for the same reasons.


Rice congee is very versatile and you can add in anything you want.


I like the congee that my mum makes which contains dried scallops, century duck eggs and pork bones.


I made some rice congree on the weekend with my pressure cooker. I inherited my parents old pressure cooker (because they bought a bigger one) when I moved out and it has been sitting in my cupboard unused for over a year. I have always been a bit freaked out by the thought of using a pressure cooker because it makes a hissing noise and sounds like it could explode at any moment. When my mum first started using a pressure cooker, she would take the pressure cooker pot outside and put it in the middle of the backyard before turning the knob to release the pressure and let the steam out to avoid any explosions in the kitchen! My mum gave me a big lecture on how to use the pressure cooker properly when she handed it over to me. Pressure cookers have a reputation as a dangerous method of cooking with the risk of explosion! However, modern pressure cookers typically have two or three independent safety valves, as well as some additional safety features. Not all pressure cookers are the same so make sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions to reduce the risk of explosion!


A pressure cooker cooks with steam and pressure. A quantity of liquid is brought to a boil in a sealed airtight pot that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. As the liquid boils, the steam increases which fills the pot and raises the pressure. This pressure forces the steam and its intense heat into and through any food that is in the pot, tenderizing and cooking at the same time. As the pressure rises, it increases the boiling point of the water and the pressure built up inside the cooker allows the liquid in the pot to rise to a higher temperature before boiling. The higher temperature causes the food to cook faster, cooking times can typically be reduced by about 70 percent. Pressure cooking is often used to simulate the effects of long braising or simmering in shorter periods of time.

Rice Congee with pork, dried scallops and century duck egg


Ingredients
• 2.5 litres of water (how much water you add, depends on the consistency you want to achieve – you can always add more water during the cooking process to your desired consistency)
• 1 ½ cup of uncooked rice, washed
• 4-5 dried scallops
• 750g soft pork bones, chopped into pieces and par-boiled
• 1 or 2 century duck eggs, chopped into pieces
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pepper
• garnish with coriander and spring onion
• fried break sticks (you can buy these at Asian groceries)

(Chopped pieces of soft pork bones with excess fat trimmed off)

(Par-boiled soft pork bones – simmered in boiling water for around a minute and then rinsed with cold water)

(Century duck egg – made by preserving duck eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, lime, and rice hulls for several weeks to several months. It has a very strong odour and is an acquired taste)

(Fried bread sticks, I pop them into the oven for around 7-8 minutes at 200C until they are crispy and then cut them into pieces with scissors. They are kind of like the Chinese version of croutons.)


Method for pressure cooker (total cooking time around 35 minutes)


Bring to boil the water and dried scallops in the pressure cooker pot (just have the lid on but don’t have it locked to the pressure cooker function or use a different lid). Then add in rice and soft pork bones. Turn the pressure cooking function on and cook for 10 minutes. 


Turn off the pressure cooker, open and use a spoon to break up the dried scallop into pieces and add in the century duck egg. Check the water level and add more water if necessary.


Turn the pressure cooking function on again and cook for another 10 minutes. 


Turn off the pressure cooker and season with fish sauce and salt to taste, then simmer without the lid on for 10-15 minutes.


Scoop some congee into bowls and serve with some freshly ground pepper and garnish with coriander and spring onion. Top with pieces of fried bread sticks.

Method for cooking in a pot (total cooking time around 2 hours)


Bring to boil the water and dried scallops, then add in the rice and soft pork bones. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for around 2 hours, partly covered. After half an hour of cooking, add in the duck egg and after an hour of cooking use a spoon to break up the dried scallop into pieces. 


Stir the pot occasionally to prevent the rice sticking to the bottom of the pot and skim away any froth at the top. Add in a little boiling water every now and then to keep a runny consistency, if necessary.  About 15 minutes before serving, add fish sauce and salt to taste. 

Rice congee is cooked until the rice is thoroughly soft. I like mine to have a medium to thick consistency.

Eventhough only pork bones are used in the rice congee, there is still quite a bit of meat left on the bone and I like to gnaw at it – the meat is very tender and delicious.