Little Brother went to a farewell party for his teacher today. His class went to a park. I made him onigiri or rice balls for his lunchbox. Big Sister made some onigiri for her lunch at home. Here is one she made. She sprinkled ume flavored sesame seeds in the rice before she molded this onigiri.
Short grain rice does better. Converted rice will not stick properly. Some recommend not rinsing the rice before making it. I rinse our rice but then I'm not too careful about measuring the correct amount of added water. In other words, a tiny bit more water than usual is added to the rice to cook it. The rice should be a little sticky but not mushy. Look at the following links for more information about
How to make onigiri:
Setsuko Watanabe's site
Bento Box
I think that my students would like to make this in class. What would I need? We are starting our "visit to Japan" this week.
ReplyDeleteMaria in NH
Maria,
ReplyDeletePlain rice can be molded into triangular rice balls. Plain sesame seeds can be mixed into the rice beforehand. Wet hands will prevent the rice from sticking. I'll try to take picture of Big Sister making one. I saw a link to a site where kids were making them I'll try to add it.
Annie