Salmon and Seaweed Onigiri - My Delicious First Try

I have a confession to make,

This post was supposed to be "pork slice wrapped enoki mushroom and ohba,"

But....I screwed that dish up...

In the beginning, everything looked so good in my head,

First, I'll lay out the thinly sliced pork on the working surface,
Gentally, I'll pick up a few enoki mushroom and ohba leaves and place them on top of the pork slices,

Then I'll dip those yummy looking rolls with flour, eggs, and then panko,
Heat up my skillet with some butter and olive oil,

Sear those soon to be eaten pork rolls, transfer to the oven for 10 or 20 more minutes,

In the meantime,

I'll grate the daikon (radish) and soak it with few dashes of ponzu sauce,
The final step,
I'll pour the sauce all over the cruchy yet juicy pork rolls....

BUT MY DREAM WAS SHATTERED INTO THOUSANDS OF TINY PIECES,

My grated daikon with ponzu sauce turned out a disaster,

It was bitter and spicy,

Only tastes a wee bit better than the powder inside your flu capsule.
Let's put it this way,

If you can compare food with movies,

It's like.....Mariah Carey's Glitter or Nicolas Cage's Wicker Man,

There were only two options left for me,

One, write about it and show you guys my disastrous dish on the blog,

Second, swallow my pain and make something else, something edible.

One way or another,
I decided to embrace my sorrow and made this onirigi (rice ball) today-

Again,

If you can compare food with movies,

This onirigi is like a good old Japanese film Tokyo Story,

Or Princess Mononoke by Hayao Miyazaki,

Ok maybe it's not THAT good, but for sure it's one tasty dish!

Ingredients (for 3 medium sized onigiri)?

1 cup of steamed rice

4 tablespoons of salmon flakes

(You can find it in Japanese market or just buy a salmon fillet and make it yourself)

2 tablespoons of dried seaweed

1 tablespoons of roasted sesame

Water

Sea salt

How?

We have to cook the rice first,

Use a little bit, only a little bit less amount of water while steaming the rice,

We want to have a chewier rice for our rice balls.

Another good alternative is to cook the rice with dashi,

It might sound like a lot of work,

But it'll definitely worth it once you have the very first bite of onigiri.

After the rice is ready,

Give it a nice stir so the steam can evaporate before we add other ingredients.

Stir in the salmon flakes, dried seaweed, and roasted sesame.

If you can't find salmon flakes,

Simply sprinkle some nice sea salt on the salmon flakes and bake it till cooked through,

Additional seasoning is optional,

I personally think good quality sea salt can do the job perfectly.

Please don't remove the skin while baking the salmon fillet,

Trust me, your salmon fillet will tastes way better that way.

Separate the fillet into little pieces with a fork, discard the skin.

Your instant salmon flake is ready to go!

Have a small bowl of water and a small plate of salt ready,

It's time to make the rice ball.

First dip your palms into the water, just a little bit is fine,

Then dip your palms with some sea salt,

You can rub your palms together to have a more even distribution of salt.

Now have a big palmful of onigiri mixture on your left hand and gently forming it into a ball shape with your right hand,

After the rice stop falling apart here and there,

Give it more pressure and gradually making the mixture into a triangle shaped rice ball.

The dish is done,

Very simple yeah?

I gonna bring some to work tomorrow,

Onirigi makes a perfect lunch for me,

It's also a nice alternative for picnic meals,

(Kick out those sandwiches, we want something new!)

I gonna come up with more onigiri recipe and post them up here for you guys!

Cindy's Rating: 8!! (Come on, it's not bad for a first try)