Japanese Kid’s Treats – Mini Rice Balls with Sesame Salt

I know this must seem like the most boring thing in the world. A post on how to cook rice and form it into tiny balls. Yawn right? It’s not! I promise. It’s one of those things that looks so simple and plain and tastes refreshing and delicious. When living in Japan I fell in love with their rice balls or “onigiri”, especially from the 7-11. It was just such a novelty to be able to get such healthy fast food that tasted so good! Those ones had different fillings and were wrapped in super fresh nori.

This is the version I make at home all the time. They’re super fast and easy to make. They only contain 4 ingredients and versatile; they’re just as good for any meal of the day or a snack. My daughter loves them and if there are leftovers I heat them up in a dry skillet or cook them in a drop of toasted sesame oil till they get golden and crunchy on a few sides. These are my version of “yaki onigiri” or grilled rice balls. My kind of fast food!

Dress them up for a party by placing them on a beautiful platter with julienned vegetables, small nori sheets or smoked salmon. Especially good with cold beer, as I recall.

Recipe: makes 16-20 rice balls, depending on their size.

Special equipment: a small saucepan with a tight fitting lid, mortor and pestle would be nice

Ingredients:

1 cup short grain organic brown rice, lundberg is the tastiest brand if available

2 cups cold water

1 Tablespoon rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar may be substituted

 

Sesame Salt

1/2 cup white sesame seeds

1/2 teaspoon sea salt, preferably celtic sea salt

 

Directions:

1. Wash the rice in a bowl and drain well. Add the cooking water to the clean rice in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil. Once it is at an even rolling boil cover it and simmer for 45 min. Remove the rice from the heat and let sit an additional 10 min. After you cover it and begin steaming do not look inside until it is finished or it won’t cook evenly.
2. Fluff the rice with a fork, make sure all the water is absorbed. If it isn’t all absorbed yet , then place the pot back on the heat on low for an additional 10 minutes.
3. Turn all of the rice out of the pot onto a dinner plate, breaking up big clumps as you go. Set it aside until it is cool enough to handle.
4. Place the sesame seeds in a small skillet over low heat. Cook them stirring occasionally until they are just slightly golden and  they begin to have a light aroma. Remove them from the heat, add the salt to the pan and shake it all together and place it on a dinner plate. You can use the sesame salt or “gomashio” just like this or you can use a mortor and pestle to grind it by hand.
5. Fill a small bowl with about 1/2 cup of cold water and add the Tablespoon of rice vinegar. Make sure your hands are very clean and dip them into this water to just slightly moisten your hands all over the fingers and palms. Now reach into the rice and grab an egg size amount of rice. Gently roll it into a ball and place it on the plate that has the sesame seeds. Return your hands to the water to be re-moistened and go back to the rice again and repeat this over and over until you’ve used all the rice or made the amount of rice balls you want.

Options: If you are serving short grain brown rice for dinner you can make rice balls, either with the sesame salt or plain with the leftover rice. It is easier to make the rice balls when the rice is still slightly warm. Make these rice balls for snacks on the go by putting the sesame salt in a plastic container and drop the rice balls right in. Then when its full just put the lid on and shake it around a bit until they are coated in the sesame seeds. Kids can help make these too! Does get a bit messier but they’ll soon get the hang of it.

Variations:

• add 1/2 teaspoon of dulse or bits of nori to the sesame salt
• add bits of smoked or cooked salmon to the rice. Make sure they are very small and not too much or the rice won’t hold together as well. These cannot be grilled or re-heated.