Umeboshi Onigiri (梅干しおにぎり)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Rice cooker, or heavy saucepan with a tight lid
• •Shamoji (rice paddle), or a damp wooden spatula
• •Hangiri (wooden rice tub), or a wide shallow bowl
• •Onigiri mold, optional, used lightly

Instructions

1. 1

   Wash the rice

   Put the rice in a bowl, cover it with cool water, stir quickly with your fingers, then pour the cloudy water off. Repeat three or four times until the water is only faintly milky, then drain for 10 minutes. You're taking away loose surface starch so the grains cook cleanly, while keeping enough cling for the onigiri to hold.

2. 2

   Cook the rice

   Move the drained rice to a rice cooker, add water to the 2-cup line, and cook. For a pot, combine the rice with about 430 ml water, soak 20 minutes, cover, bring just to a boil over medium heat, lower the heat, cook 12 minutes, then rest off the heat 10 minutes without lifting the lid. The rest finishes the grains evenly, and even rice shapes better than hurried rice.

   For onigiri, rice should be tender but not wet. If the rice is mushy, you'll squeeze harder to make it hold, and then the bite turns heavy.
3. 3

   Prepare the plums

   While the rice cooks, remove the pits from the umeboshi. Use one small plum for each onigiri, or half a large one. Don't rinse the plum. Its salt and acid are the point of the filling, not something to tame away.

4. 4

   Cool slightly

   Fluff the rice with a shamoji, a rice paddle, using cutting and folding motions rather than mashing. Spread it in a wide bowl for about 5 minutes, just until it is hot but touchable. Warm rice clings; cold rice cracks and refuses the shape.

5. 5

   Salt your hands

   Set the hand water and salt beside you. Wet your hands lightly, shake off the excess, then rub a small pinch of salt across both palms. The water keeps the rice from sticking, and the salt seasons the outside, where the first bite lands before it reaches the plum.

6. 6

   Fill and shape

   Scoop about 1/2 cup, or 80 to 90 g, of warm rice into one palm. Make a shallow hollow, tuck in one umeboshi, cover it with rice, then press into a triangle by turning the rice between your hands three or four times. Press firmly enough to hold, never so hard that the grains crush. The goal is a rice ball, not a doorstop.

7. 7

   Wrap with nori

   For eating right away, wrap each onigiri with a strip of nori, rough side against the rice and shiny side out. For a picnic or lunchbox, pack the nori separately if you want it crisp, or wrap it now if you like it soft. Both textures belong; choose on purpose.

8. 8

   Serve or pack

   Serve the onigiri the same day. If packing them, let the rice cool before sealing, wrap each one individually, and keep them chilled if they will sit more than two hours. Umeboshi helps the rice taste clean, but it doesn't make food safety disappear.

Chef Tips

• •Use Japanese short-grain rice. Medium-grain can work in a pinch, but long-grain rice scatters, and no amount of squeezing turns it into the same food.
• •Read the umeboshi label if you can. Ume, salt, and red shiso give the old sour-salty bite. Honey-sweet low-salt umeboshi is a modern taste, not wrong, but it makes a gentler onigiri.
• •Shape with warm rice and salted wet hands. That little salt on the outside is not decoration. It is the first seasoning the mouth meets.
• •In autumn, new rice, shinmai, holds more moisture. Use a spoonful less water if your rice usually cooks soft. Shun does its work quietly, even in a rice ball.

Advance Preparation

• •The rice can be washed and soaked up to 1 hour before cooking. Keep it covered so the grains hydrate evenly.
• •The umeboshi can be pitted and the nori cut a day ahead. Keep the nori sealed and dry until serving.
• •Finished onigiri are best the day they are made. For the next morning, wrap the rice balls without nori and refrigerate, then warm gently just until the rice softens and add the nori after.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 120g)