Tuna Onigiri

I am a huge fan of Japanese cuisine.  Sushi, obviously.  But I find it to be such a comforting food culture.  We got to take a trip to Kyoto two winters ago and it is BY FAR my favorite place I have traveled.  NYC would be a close second.  The people were so welcoming.  The three of us idiots knew no Japanese and were very ill-prepared, but never felt like we were a nuisance or unwelcome.  But the food.  The food was everything I want.  Kyoto is particularly known for tofu and vegetarian dishes, but you can find all the typical Japanese food that tourists are looking for like sushi, ramen, soba, tempura, etc.

What I found so fun is eating at convenience stores and grocery stores.  Here is some stuff we got from a grocery store:

Those maki rolls have WAY too much rice (as I write about a recipe that is literally a ball of rice), but I will forgive them this time.  The rest was super good and very affordable.  That box of assorted sushi was less than $5.  On the far left, that is Inari sushi.  It is sushi rice wrapped in this thin piece of tofu that is coated in a sweet glaze.  Birk's fave.    

One of my favorite convenience store/grocery store snacks is the Onigiri.  In the picture below, you can see the 3 Onigiri triangles in the top right corner.  The only trouble we had was that there were so many different types of fillings and our phone translators didn't do a good job telling us what they were!  Surprise every time. 

So what is Onigiri?  It is a triangle ball of rice, filled with fish or veggies, and wrapped in nori.  The rice is typically not seasoned like sushi rice, but could be.  A very friendly filling is a tuna salad, so that is what the recipe below has in it.  It seems so simple, but what does it for me is the crunchy nori.  

You can make these two ways.  The first way is above, using a fancy wrapper (which you can buy here).  The wrapper prevents the rice from touching the nori, which is what makes it crunchy.  These Onigiri are available everywhere in Japan and I have also seen them in big cities like San Francisco and NYC.  They are such a great snack.  I loved them for breakfast.  The second way is in the photo below, just wrapping a normal piece of nori around the rice ball.  The nori will remain crunchy if you eat it right away or if you keep the nori separate from the rice ball until ready to eat.  Or if you want the same texture as sushi (soft nori), you can wrap in advance.

 

The fun of Onigiri for me is unwrapping it.  Genius packaging!  Here is a video of me unwrapping and eating it.   Trigger warning:  1. horrible video; 2. horrible audio; 3. sort of weird, right?

 

 

I like to eat with a little soy sauce, as shown in the video.  Other typical fillings include flaked, cooked salmon or a preserved plum.  I honestly wish I didn't have to make these and could just buy for $1 anywhere, as is the case in Japan.  But they are so satisfying that I will continue to make them until I move to Japan.  

PS:  I know my photography skills are problematic!  I will work on it.  I swear I will not hold every thing I make up to our window and take a back lit photo.  Did you hear the videos? 

Onigiri (filled with Tuna)
by foodforscot

3 cups of cooked sushi/short grain white rice (~1.5 uncooked)
3 full sheets of nori roasted seaweed, cut into thirds (or ~7-9 seaweed wrappers, here)
1 can of tuna, liquid drained
2 tbsp of mayo
2 tbsp of chopped pickles
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp-1/4 cup of sesame seeds

Prep your rice:  If you need directions on how to cook steamed rice without a rice cooker, see this recipe.  I would recommend that you use a rice cooker because it will always do it better than you.  I have this Cuisinart model and it has horrible reviews because if you make more than 2 cups, it overflows and makes a pretty big mess.  However, it STILL makes better rice than me so I have been using it for almost 10 years.  How am I old enough to EVEN say that.  This is how you write recipes, right?

Prep your filling:  mix together tuna, mayo, pickles, and garlic powder.  Use a fork to mash up tuna so there are not big chunks.  Season with lots of pepper, and salt to taste.

Prep your nori:  if you are using regular nori sheets, cut each sheet into three pieces.  If you are using the wrappers to allow you store and eat later, get all the annoying stickers ready. 

Assemble!

Use a mold (here):  rub your surface with water and sprinkle with a little salt.  Place mold on top.  Place cooked rice to fill half the triangle mold and press to compress.  Add a few spoonfuls of tuna mixture.  Fill the rest of the mold with rice and press to compress.  Sprinkle or roll is sesame seeds, and wrap in nori or wrapper.

Here is a video that shows what I just wrote (your choice if you want to be soothed by the audio):

Without a mold:  Rub your hands with a little water.  Sprinkle salt on hands rub together.  Grab about <1/4 cup of cooked rice.  Using a cupping motion with both hands, form ball.  Make a small indentation in the middle and fill with a spoonful of tuna mixture.  Redip your hands in a bit of water and add another <1/4 cup of rice to cover the tuna mixture.  The amount of rice doesn't need to be exact.  1/3-1/2 cups of rice per Onigiri seems reasonable.  Those numbers seem off based on the video.  Continue to mold using a cupping motion with your hands.  Once ball is formed, you can form into a triangle.  Just watch the video this is impossible to explain.  Sprinkle or roll is sesame seeds, and wrap in nori or wrapper.

Here is a video that shows what I just wrote (one of the creepier things I have done, also audio is optional and probably should be avoided):

Okonomiyaki - Japanese Pancake

Good stuff.  I liked this recipe because it is a good way to use up some leftovers in an interesting way.  Like the other half of a cabbage.  BTW,  apparently you can cut cabbages in half and only buy half at the grocery store.  Because I have noticed the last couple of times that there are cabbage halves.  I am going to have to try that sometime.  I still need to perfect the whole technique.  I think I might prefer smaller pancakes.  This big guy was good but I wished it was a little drier and EVEN crispier.  

Okonomiyaki

by Closet Cooking

1 cup flour (I used whole wheat flour)

3/4 cup dashi (or water)

1 egg

1/4 of a cabbage, about 2-3 cups packed (shredded)

1 carrot, about 1/2 cup (grated)

1 small zucchini, about 1 cup (grated)

1 green onion (chopped)

3 slices bacon

okonomiyaki sauce (or Worcestershire sauce)

mayonnaise

green onion (chopped)

Mix the flour, dashi, egg, cabbage, carrot and zucchini in a large bowl. Heat some oil in pan. Pour in mixture and top with the bacon slices. Cook on medium heat until golden brown on both sides, about 5-15 minutes per side. Top with okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and green onion and slice.

(Servings: 4, Prep time: 15 min., Cook time: 30 min., Difficulty: Easy)

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Coconut Mochi (Chichi Dango)

We spent our honeymoon in Hawaii.  Honolulu.  Which was amazing.  Pretty touristy.  We had a hard time finding anything authentic.  But, didn't really matter, it was still amazing.  What we really fell in love with, though, was mochi.  If you aren't familiar with it, it is this cake/pastry made from glutinous rice.  It really isn't anything like cake, but I am not sure how to describe it.  The texture is kind of gelatin-y, kind of sticky.  Also, just for your information, the fact that it is called glutinous rice makes you think it somehow contains gluten, right?  Well, turns out, it is called glutinous to imply that it is sticky or glue-like.  There is not gluten in it at all.

Usually you see a lot of mochi balls filled with different things like red bean paste or ice cream.  Also, there is a lot of fried mochi.  Obviously, also good.  I actually just love the mochi, itself, and always wished the filling wasn't there.  So, our favorite mochi we had when we were in Hawaii was this homemade coconut mochi that we bought at this tiny farmer's market on the North shore.  No filling, just coconut flavored mochi with coconut flakes on top.  I looked a lot for a recipe that seemed like it would produce something similar and this is what I decided on.  And it was exactly what I was looking for!

Before baking:

After baking:

I loved this recipe.  I added some coconut flakes to the top, which I would recommend.  Just sprinkle over before covering and baking.  I also decorated with some food coloring because I took this to a potluck themed "Food as Art".  I tried to make them look artsy.  I liked how they turned out but the food coloring is not necessary.  Although, it is common to just dye the entire batter a little pastel color.  And it is fun to decorate.  

Coconut Mochi (Chichi Dango)

adapted from alohaworld.com

1 lb mochi flour (mochiko or glutinous rice flour)

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 14 ounce can coconut milk

3/4 cups water

Mix sugar, flour and baking powder together. Add all the liquid ingredients mix until smooth. Poor into a greased 9 x 13 pan and cover with foil. Bake one hour at 350 degrees. When cooked, cut with a plastic knife (does not stick like metal knife). May be rolled in cornstarch individually and stored.

(Servings: 18-24 pieces, Prep time: 20 min., Cook time: 1 hr., Difficulty: Easy)

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Japanese Noodles with Broth

Work in progress. This recipe still needs some tweaks, but I thought I would post it in case you wanted to tweak it yourself. All that is going on is some asian noodles, in some homemade broth with some fresh veggies on top.

First, I would rather have rice noodles instead of udon (although, Scot said he likes the udon). Second, I would keep the chicken out. What I did when making the broth, was boil the chicken for about 30 minutes, and then I removed all the meat and returned the bones to continue making the broth. Then, I shredded the meat to eat with the soup. The chicken just didn't have any flavor (which is what I thought, but I thought I'd try anyways). Last, I would add some fresh herbs like cilantro and basil. Kind of like pho, I suppose.

The broth was really good though. I liked it a lot. I wish I had some of the hot chili sauce to put in it.

Another note: Before boiling, I cut the breasts off the whole chicken to save them for tomorrow's chicken piccata. I actually even split them and pounded them out too. Sweeeeet. I almost always buy whole chickens rather than the different parts. It is much cheaper and I feel hardcore butchering the chicken.

Oh yeah, I sprained my ankle. Like for real. I have a huge black boot and crutches. I rolled it last night at basketball and it pretty much hurt really bad. It was pretty painful all night long and when I woke up, I couldn't put any pressure on it/walk. At all. Hopping is just too much work. I decided to go to the Dr.'s to get some crutches and they hooked me up with a lot more. And made me get an x-ray. I never thought sprained ankles hurt. People get them all the time and I always thought they weren't a big deal. Geeeeez...they hurt bad. The black boot is kind of amazing, though. Sorry, for the non-food interlude.

Japanese Noodles in Broth

inspired by the Joy of Cooking and Pioneer Woman

1 whole cut up chicken (4-5 lbs)

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks of celery, diced

1 small green chile pepper, diced

1 small onion

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 lb udon noodles

scallions, sliced

shredded carrots

bean sprouts

seven-spice mix (shichimi) or five-spice powder

lime

Cover chicken in about 2-4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer for 30 min.

Remove chicken from pot, let cool, and shred. Place whole onion in broth. Return bones to broth and simmer on low, covered, for 45 minutes.

Remove bones from broth with a slotted spoon or sieve. Add the carrot, celery and peppers to the pot. Stir to combine and simmer for ten minutes to meld flavors.

In another pot, boil water for udon noodles. When water is ready, make udon noodles according to package directions. Drain.

Add soy sauce, sugar, and salt gradually. Taste and adjust seasonings.

To serve, place cooked noodles and shredded chicken in bottom of a soup bowl. Ladle broth over. Sprinkle with seven-spice mix. Top with scallions, carrots, and bean sprouts. Serve with lime wedge.

(Servings: 4, Prep time: 15 min., Cook time: 2 hours, Difficulty: Easy)

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