Today we are taking a short trip around to the word with a Japanese recipe, onigiri. My take on onigiri includes smoked tofu and brown rice, with a delicious miso sauce for dipping! What is onigiri exactly? Well, let me explain!
Onigiri are Japanese rice balls that are traditionally eaten as a snack or taken on-the-go for an easy lunch. They are filled with various kinds of fillings, usually fish or briny vegetables like pickled plum or kelp.
Brown rice is not traditional in onigiri, but that is what attracted me to the recipe in the first place because I love cooking with whole grains. This recipe uses both white rice and brown rice cooked together.
The white rice overcooks during the longer cooking time of the brown rice, and its starchiness helps hold the onigiri together. You could use all white rice, but you cannot use all brown rice. It lacks the starch that helps the rice grains to cling to one another.
Variations the the Smoked Tofu Brown Rice Onigiri recipe:
- Use all white rice: This is traditional, and you will need to use less water if you don’t use the brown rice. Try equal portions of rice and water.
- Spice up the miso sauce: Add sriracha or red pepper flake to add a hint of heat.
- Form the onigiri free hand: I like the bowl and plastic wrap because it is simple enough for anyone to do, but you can do it more traditonally by hand. Keep your hands wet when working with the sticky rice, line your palm with rice, add a dollop of filling, and work the ball closed!
- 2 ¼ cups water
- ¾ cup short-grain brown rice
- ½ cup short-grain white rice
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp rice vinegar or seasoned rice vinegar
- 7 oz smoked tofu, crumbled
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 3 TBS mayo or vegan mayo
- 1 sheet nori, cut into 16 rectangular pieces
- 1 TBS each: sesame seeds and black sesame seeds
- 2 TBS miso (I used red miso)
- 4 tsp rice vinegar
- 4 tsp water
- 4 tsp honey or agave
- In a rice cooker or pot on a stove top, combine the water, brown rice, white rice, and salt. Cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 40 minutes. (The white rice will overcook by the time the brown rice is done, and that’s ok. It’s stickiness helps hold everything together.) Mix in the rice vinegar and let the rice cool enough to handle.
- Meanwhile, combine the smoked tofu, garlic and mayo in a bowl. Set aside.
- Cut the nori into 16 rectangles by cutting it in half the long way. Cut each half in half the long way, then cut each strip into 4 pieces by cutting each in half the short way, then cutting each remaining piece in half the short way.
- Place sesame seeds on a small plate, mixing them together. Place a stack of nori on the same plate.
- Line a small ramekin (about 3 oz) with plastic wrap. Stuff with about 1 TBS rice, 2 tsp tofu mixture, and another TBS rice. Fold up the plastic wrap and gently squeeze the rice around the filling, forming a triangle if desired. Remove from the plastic and place one nori piece over one edge. Dredge the other edges in sesame seeds. Continue with remaining rice and filling.
- Mix together all ingredients for the miso sauce. Serve with the onigiri.
Recipe inspried by Eating Well.
