Discovered this in the most unlikely of places… an infomercial. I saw an ad for these triangle molds and when I looked them up learned this isn’t only incredibly popular in Japan but also has transformed into the most amazing rice ball animal figurine art. Almost too cute to eat. Almost.
Onigiri
Sushi Rice, Nori, and these cool triangle molds and your in business
The soaking, rinsing and cooking of the rice is the longest part of this fun venture into Japanese snack food. The rinsing and soaking is about a half hour followed by another 30 minutes for cooking the rice. One cup of rice will make about 8 so decide how many you want before this step. While the rice cooks you can cut the nori into strips and choose what fun veggies or filling to want to stuff in the middle. We love avocado, cucumber, carrot, cream cheese, smoked salmon, tuna fish but have also had fun experimenting with PB&J, BBQ chicken and Ham and Cheddar. Fun fruit like mango with spice and lime and pineapple are both great with cream cheese too.
When your rice is done and been fluffed you can mix in some Furikake which is a multi purpose seasoning from Japan that has sesame seeds and seaweed. I know that’s pretty random so another option is any seed that could go on a bagel or crunched up seaweed that are all the rage with the kids these days.
And now we put it all together. Place one strip in each triangle put a layer of rice to cover the bottom. Add filling. Layer the top with rice, put the top on and push to compact. Take top off and push your delicious tri-sided rice ball out onto the counter. It’s so dang rewarding. The rice is REALLY sticky so if you have littles with texture issues then gloves might be a good idea. Have fun with it and watch them eat up their artful lunch that they made with there own vision. Sure beats eating play dough.