Rice Triangles
Picnics are very popular in Japan and rice shapes — onigiri — are ideal picnic fare. You can put anything you like in the rice, so you could invent your own onigiri.
Ingredients
- 1 salmon steak
- 15mI / 1 tbsp salt
- 450g / 1lb / 4 cups freshly cooked sushi rice
- 4 umeboshi (plum pickles)
- ½ sheet yaki-nori seaweed, cut into four equal strips
- white and black sesame seeds, for sprinkling
Preparation
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- Grill the salmon steak for 4-5 minutes on each side, until the flesh flakes easily when it is tested with the tip of a sharp knife. Set aside to cool while you make other onigiri. When the salmon is cold, flake it, discarding any skin and bones.
- Put the salt in a bowl. Spoon a quarter of the warm cooked rice into a small rice bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the rice and put in one umeboshi. Smooth the rice over to cover.
- Wet the palms of both hands with cold water, then rub the salt evenly on to your palms.
- Empty the rice and umeboshi from the bowl on to one hand. Use both hands to shape the rice into a triangular shape, using firm but not heavy pressure. Make three more rice triangles in the same way.
- Mix the flaked salmon into the remaining rice, then shape it into triangles as before.
- Wrap a strip of yaki-nori around each of the umeboshi triangles. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the salmon triangles.
COOK'S TIP
Always use warm rice to make the triangles. Allow them to cool completely and wrap each in foil or clear film.
Serves 4.