Onigiri & Homemade Furikake

Steps

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1. 1
   Prepare warm cooked Japanese rice and place it in a bowl to keep warm. Use unseasoned rice, not vinegar-seasoned sushi rice.
   ▶ ≈0:41
2. 2
   Slightly wet your hands with water and sprinkle salt on your palms. Take a handful of rice and gently mold it by rotating and cupping with your palms, avoiding finger pressure that would crush the grains.
   ▶ ≈1:19
3. 3
   Shape the rice into a triangle, rotating 180 degrees to ensure even sides. Keep the rice grains separate rather than mashed together.
   ▶ ≈1:34
4. 4
   Cut good-quality nori into strips slightly narrower than your onigiri width using scissors. Halve the strip, place the onigiri in the center, and fold up both sides to wrap it.
   ▶ ≈2:45
5. 5
   For filled onigiri: wet hands, add salt, and form a small rice patty. Place a pitted umeboshi plum in the center, surround with more rice, then mold into a triangle shape.
   ▶ ≈3:52
6. 6
   For furikake onigiri: mix store-bought or homemade furikake into the rice. With slightly wet hands (no salt needed), form a handful of seasoned rice into a round or triangular shape.
   ▶ ≈5:05
7. 7
   To make homemade furikake: toast a sheet of nori seaweed over a gas flame until it becomes brittle and fragrant.
   ▶ ≈6:55
8. 8
   Break the toasted nori into small pieces and blend with bonito flakes in a food processor, then transfer to a clean bowl as the base for furikake.
   ▶ ≈7:43
9. 9
   Add dried shrimp, aonori seaweed, and sesame seeds, keeping some ingredients in flake form rather than powdering everything together.
   ▶ ≈8:12
10. 10
    Roughly chop and add the kombu seaweed, then season lightly with sugar and salt, mixing well together.
    ▶ ≈8:52
11. 11
    Pack onigiri into a lunchbox and keep at room temperature. Eat within 4 to 6 hours. Do not refrigerate, as this will make the rice starchy and dry.
    ▶ ≈9:52