Onigiri (Japanes Rice Balls)

Western people eat sandwich for their lunch, while Japanese eat onigiri. Onigiri is always found in the lunch box of Japanese kids and adults because for the Japanese, a lunch is not complete without onigiri.

Ingredients:

• 350 g uncooked Japanese rice or short grain rice
• 1 ao nori (seaweed) sheet
• 3 sachets (30g) of furikake (Japanese rice seasonings)

Method:

1. Wash the rice and cook it in a saucepan with 400 ml water, cover and bring to the boil before reducing the heat to low and cooking for 10-15 minutes.
2. Turn off the heat and leave without taking off the lid for a further 10 minutes.
3. Cut the ao nori into 8 small squares with scissors.
4. Mix the rice and the furikake together and shape into four small onigiri rice balls by hand, while the rice is still warm.
5. Stick the ao nori square to the both front and back sides of the onigiri.
6. Serve warm with soy sauce.

Note:
* A rice cooker can be used for cooking the onigiri rice. When the rice cooker is used, skip the step 1&2 and cook the rice normally in the rice cooker.
* Furikake can be substituted by cooked minced meat, cooked minced chicken, or cooked fish flakes. You just need to be creative with the mixture of onigiri. ;)