Rice balls for garnish

Mon, January 19, 2015

Now I come to you not so much with a recipe for making the second dish, but more with a method of serving it. I think any housewife understands how to cook rice, and oh, it’s so wonderful to serve them, read below.

Children especially like the side of rice balls, although adults are also ecstatic when served like this. By the way, rice prepared in advance in this way can be placed in an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator until serving, and then simply reheated in the microwave.

Serve rice balls as a side dish for meat dishes (cutlets and zraza), poultry, fish or vegetable dishes. In any case, it will turn out appetizing, beautiful, tasty and satisfying. I really hope that you will need the step-by-step photo recipe for this second dish.

Ingredients:

Making a dish step by step:

This cheap recipe for a second course includes such products as: rice (you can use any kind of rice - steamed or polished), water, a little salt and butter.

First, carefully wash the rice in cool running water - as experienced cooks say, they wash rice in 7 waters.

Then put the rice in a saucepan and fill it with cool water. Salt and put on fire.

When the water boils, turn the heat to low, cover the pan with a lid and cook the rice for 15-20 minutes until the water has completely boiled away.

Then add butter to the hot rice. Cover with a lid and wait a minute for the butter to melt.

Then carefully mix the rice.

Now take a board and cut off a piece of cling film (approximately 40x40 cm). Depending on the desired size of the balls, place the boiled rice on the film. I made 9 balls the size of a small chicken egg.

Now we collect the film into a bag so that there is rice inside. Use your hands to help create a ball - the rice is hot, be careful.

Now we just unroll the film and the rice ball is ready. We do others similarly.

You can store the side rice balls in an airtight container with a lid, and then reheat them as needed.

Japanese rice balls: recipe for making

Onigiri is a very common Japanese dish that looks like balls or large triangles of rice with different interiors. Most often, onigiri is also wrapped in dried aquatic plants, lettuce, and sometimes in an omelette or thinly sliced ham.

A little history

Onigiri at first was only a farm food that commoners took to work in the fields. Since ancient Japan was a land-only state, this type of food became widespread. Even aristocrats began to take the prototype of onigiri - tonjiki - when going on a picnic or hunting. In our time of erasing borders and increased enthusiasm for state features, art and cuisine of various nations, onigiri, as well as sushi, pizza or pancakes, are known in virtually every corner of the world.

By the way, these rice balls under no circumstances belong to sushi, since only unleavened rice is used for its production (unlike sushi).

Common to all recipes

Before you cook the rice balls, you need to cook the rice properly. The cereal is painstakingly washed under running cool water until the flowing liquid is clear. Washed rice is boiled in salted water. It should become soft, but not boiled. When ready, drain the water, transfer the rice to a colander and let it cool slightly.

Almost always when rice balls are prepared, the recipe for making them requires the presence of dried aquatic plants. They can be replaced with the most accessible greens: parsley, arugula, mint or sorrel. Almost all recipes and tips on how to create rice balls use one or another inside, not mixed with rice, but placed inside. This is done simply: a deep hole is made in a ball formed from rice, into which a suitable mixture is carefully placed with a teaspoon. After this, the hole with minced meat must be sealed. The ball is kneaded a little and rolled in your hands to compact the finished onigiri.

The most common onigiri

Even a person who is very far from cooking can prepare such rice balls. A saucepan with freshly cooked rice for 15 minutes. wrap yourself in something warm (plaid, blanket, terry towel), finely chop the greens, heat the sesame seeds for 5 minutes in the oven. Add greens to the steamed rice, and salt if necessary. Form balls, roll in sesame seeds, serve with any sauce.

Onigiri and vegetable sauce

But the rest of the rice balls are Japanese. Their recipe is as simple as the previous one, and the highlight is the sauce.

Rice balls with cheese

Let's move on to the next version of the dish.
These unique Japanese rice balls (a recipe that successfully combines rice with cheese and capers) will showcase the personality of Far Eastern cuisine and become a table centerpiece. For 300 g of rice you will need 100 g of cheese, 1 clove of garlic, 3 lemons, dark pepper, vegetable (preferably olive) oil, capers, parsley. Add the zest and juice of 1 lemon, finely chopped parsley, crushed garlic, pepper, salt to taste, grated cheese and pre-cooked rice to the olive oil. Mix everything very carefully, form balls, place them on thin lemon slices, garnish with capers on top.

Free balls

Carefully beat the egg, two tablespoons of sugar, salt to taste and a pinch of cinnamon, add about 100 g of flour, mix thoroughly. Add previously cooked rice and knead the dough. Roll the rice into balls and deep-fry, turning carefully and often. Place the finished onigiri on paper napkins and sprinkle with sweet powder.

Onigiri with minced meat

Chop one small or half a medium onion and fry in olive oil, then add 200 g of minced meat (preferably mixed, for example pork and beef) and a quarter glass of wine (dry snow-white). With constant stirring, wait for the wine to evaporate, add a tablespoon of tomato paste, water - so that the liquid covers the entire minced meat. Salt, pepper, add basil or oregano.

Simmer on the lowest heat for about 40 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon and transfer the minced meat into one container and pour the sauce into another. Pour some of the sauce into the cooked rice, making sure that the mixture does not become too watery, add a couple of tbsp. spoons of grated Parmesan and an egg, mix thoroughly. Form rice balls, putting a little minced meat and a small piece of cheese in the middle, dip them in a beaten egg, roll generously in breadcrumbs and fry in olive oil until golden brown.

Such balls are also made with liver (chicken, turkey, rabbit, beef). The recipe is similar, except that the selected liver is fried in sour cream sauce. Then the liquid is decanted, and the liver is passed through a meat grinder.

You can prepare balls with minced meat according to the most common recipe. In this case, minced chicken is taken: the fillet is passed through a meat grinder, salted and fried in vegetable oil. When ready, add cheese to the minced meat and mix everything until smooth. The prepared rice porridge is made into balls, into which the purchased minced meat is placed. The balls are also dipped into an egg, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, even deep-fried.

Onigiri with umeboshi

Umeboshi - the so-called dried Japanese plums, are essentially salted (pickled) Japanese apricot fruits. This is a recipe in which rice balls are filled with two types of filling: salmon and umeboshi.

Already cooked and slightly cooled rice is divided into two parts. Triangular onigiri with umeboshi are formed from one half. These products are wrapped in a single strip of aquatic nori plants. Grilled salmon, peeled from skin and bones, is kneaded until smooth and mixed with the 2nd part of rice. Onigiri of the same triangular shape are created from the acquired substance, but they are not wrapped with aquatic plants, but sprinkled with sesame seeds. Usually 2 balls are placed per serving - with salmon and with umeboshi.

It should be taken into account that onigiri made according to this recipe are formed quite large, for example, for 4 servings, i.e., 8 units of balls equal a kilogram and a quarter of rice and 200 g of salmon. They turn out to be relatively large and differ from ordinary products in their shape. But in fact - one and the same.

I would like to add at the end: Japanese cuisine is quite ordinary in execution, products (even aquatic plants) are available and inexpensive. So don’t be afraid to experiment and arrange an unforgettable Japanese evening for yourself.

Rice balls with kimchi and tuna (with video)

Kimchi Tuna Rice Balls This dish came to Korean cuisine from Japanese. In the Land of the Rising Sun it is called Onigiri (Japanese: おにぎり, rH. Onigiri). Korean cuisine was strongly influenced by the Land of the Rising Sun, being a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945. In Korean history, those times are called the colonial period (Korean: 식민지시대).

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Onigiri - Japanese rice balls

Onigiri is a fairly common dish in the Land of the Rising Sun, which is prepared from unleavened rice. Together with sushi, it is very popular. But considering onigiri to be one of the types of sushi is a mistake, because it is a completely independent dish with its own history. But in Japanese restaurants you can find onigiri sushi.

These rice balls arose back in the 10th century during the Heian period, then farmers took them with them to the field as a snack, and soldiers also gained weight with them during a campaign. You won't be surprised to learn that the main ingredient in onigiri recipe is rice. Japanese onigiri look like snow-white large triangles or small balls with a backing in the form of Nori aquatic plants. Most often, the recipe for these triangular koloboks is prepared with the inside, but it is possible to do without it, because for this dish the rice itself is important, not the inside.

How to cook rice for onigiri

Properly cooked rice for onigiri is already half the success in cooking.

For Japanese cuisine, choose short-grain rice, because it contains more starch, which means it will not be crumbly.
Also, the grain should be free of all husks and dark spots.
Before production, it must be thoroughly washed. Residents of the Land of the Rising Sun wash it seven times, no less and no more. Place it in a bowl and pour water into it, then wash the rice and drain the water. Repeat this function seven times until the water becomes clear. Apparently, among the Japanese this number has some kind of magical meaning, but nevertheless, by the eighth time the water is truly transparent. If this ritual is not to your taste, you can simply put the rice in a sieve and wash it under running water.
Pour clean water into the unstained rice and allow the cereal to sit for a little while, about half an hour. Usually, to make rice, it is placed in cool water and then brought to a boil, but the inhabitants of the land of the rising sun prepare it differently. They first boil water, and then add rice to the boiling water and close the lid tightly.
There should be little more water than rice, in other words, it should cover it by a centimeter.
During cooking, steam should not escape from the pan, at first the rice should be cooked over medium heat, after 5 minutes of boiling, reduce the heat and cook until tender.
Once the rice is ready, turn off the heat and let it sit for a little while longer under the lid closed.

Innards for onigiri

You can choose whatever filling you like.

But residents of the Land of the Rising Sun most prefer salted or lightly salted salmon. Salmon in particular goes well with cucumbers.
Because Japan is a country rich in a variety of seafood, no matter what kind of fish (tuna, conger eel, salmon, trout, shrimp, caviar) is usually used in the innards.
In addition to fish, you can add meat or sausages to the filling.
Also popular are pickled cucumbers and pickled apricots, called umeboshi by the Japanese.
The insides for onigiri are very diverse; you can put both chicken and vegetables.

Ingredients for a Japanese dish

To prepare onigiri we will need:

Sushi rice – 1 cup;
Aquatic Plants Nori;
Lightly salted salmon, trout or salmon, or whatever interior you like.

Making “rice balls”

We bring to your attention an annotation on how to create onigiri without the help of others at home.

Since the rice is ready, let’s move on to forming the rice balls. The manufacturing process itself and the name of these rice meatballs are inextricably linked. Onigiri means to squeeze in Japanese. So in order to make balls and triangles, the still warm rice will need to be squeezed a little into your palms. But before this, put the filling in the cereal. Just don’t squeeze the rice too much, otherwise it will lose its flavor properties.
Wrap the purchased bun with a strip of aquatic plants nori, sprinkle with black and snow-white sesame seeds, and place perfectly on a plate. If you don’t eat the “koloboks” right away, then you shouldn’t wrap them in nori aquatic plants, otherwise the nori will simply soften and spread apart.
If the “balls” seem bland to you, nothing terrible will happen if you add a little salt, although in real onigiri salt and any other seasonings are not used.
For decoration, they use sesame or caviar; also, people with special imagination make small rice men.

Although this dish is simple to prepare, it is very tasty; you can prepare onigiri for the arrival of friends, or just for a snack. This Japanese dish is usually served with sake. Bon appetit!