Recipe: Onigirazu – Japanese Rice Sandwich

Popular blogger Honey Bee Sweets shares with Weekender her fourth recipe

“Onigiri” means Japanese rice ball. Onigirazu is in the shape of a flat rectangle, like a rice sandwich wrapped in seaweed.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2-3 people

• 3 sheets Seaweed
• 500g Cooked sushi rice, from 1 cup raw rice – once cooked, add 1 tsp Japanese rice vinegar and 1tsp mirin (rice wine condiment)
• 200g Fresh salmon, washed
• 1 Japanese cucumber, peeled
• 5 Crab sticks, shredded & mixed with 1 tbsp Japanese mayonnaise
• 1 Large egg, beaten – mixed with ½ tsp soy sauce & ½ tsp mirin; cooked at low fire on non-stick pan; dish out and fold into square

METHOD

1. Place a sheet of cling wrap on your clean work area. The sheet must be at least 4cm longer (length & breadth) than the seaweed sheets.
2. Place the seaweed sheet over the cling wrap sheet and centralise it.
3. 3.Scoop about 100g of cooked sushi rice and place it in the middle of the seaweed sheet.
4. Using your rice scoop, arrange the rice in a squarish shape. Make sure to give some space allowance, especially along the corners.
5. Add in the ingredients you want. I used salmon mayo – sautéed salmon, flaked and with 1 tbsp Japanese mayo, ¼ tsp salt, a dash of pepper and ½ tsp sugar. Mix well. You can also use avocado, egg mayo or teriyaki pork belly.
6. Arrange the cucumber strips over salmon mayo and pile on about 70g of sushi rice over the cucumber. Try not to pack too much ingredients in, or you might not be able to wrap it.
7. Press gently so the rice is packed down upon the other ingredients. Wrap it by folding in the corners, one by one.
8. Let the moisture from the sushi rice stick the seaweed together. You can dab a bit of water but the seaweed may wrinkle.
9. Use the cling wrap to wrap up the whole onigirazu. Make sure it’s tight so that the sushi will hold its shape when cut.
10. Let the sushi sandwich sit for 5-10 min before slicing it, with the cling wrap still on.
11. Repeat the process until all your ingredients are used up.

By Honey Bee Sweets
Honeybeesweets.sg

Bee Bee, better known as Honey Bee Sweets, is a stay-at-home parent and a popular food blogger – on Instagram alone, @honeybeesweets.sg has over 35,300 followers.