Rice: The Long and The Short of It

Many Japanese recipes are centred around the most important staple, rice. For an authentic Japanese experience it's important you have the right kind of rice, for practical reasons (you want the rice to stick together so that it's easy to pick up with chopsticks), as well as for texture, flavour, and looks.

Just like the Italians like their pasta al dente, for the Japanese the rice has to be cooked just right, or it will taint the whole dining experience. Now I'm no expert on how to get the perfect bowl of rice, but I can give you a few pointers on the basics.

1. Buy SHORT grain rice or sushi rice. I use the American grown non-GMO Sushi Rice or Australian grown SunRice Sushi Rice both available from Kosco, you can buy Japanese grown rice, but just expect to pay a bit more. You can also get genjimai which is semi-hulled rice if you want a bit more whole grain nutrition. 
2. Buy a rice cooker. Save your sanity and take the guess work out of it. You can get rice cookers, like the one pictured above, on sale for as little as $30, well worth the small outlay.
3. Wash your rice gently but thoroughly before cooking. I usually wash mine about three times in the rice cooker bowl, until the water is near enough to clear. If you don't wash away the starch you will get heavy gluggy rice.
4. Let your rice stand. If you have a basic rice cooker like the one pictured, once cooked allow the rice to stand (with lid still on) for about 5-10 minutes before you stir, put the lid on and allow to stand for a further few minutes before serving. This should stop it from being too gluggy. You want your rice to be sticking together but not too dry or too wet. If you've put in too much water and it goes gluggy, take the lid off for a few minutes, stir gently and then allow to stand for a bit longer on the warm setting.

Before I went to Japan I used to cook Uncle Ben's rice in the bags, I was later to learn that this to Japanese people is like chewing cardboard pellets! Needless to say I have never looked at rice quite the same since living in Japan.

You can do a myriad of things with your left over rice, so always cook extra for the freezer or your lunch the next day.  

Which brings me to an easy lunch box recipe, onigiri or rice balls. When your sick of sandwiches these go down a treat, and are also great for picnics and hanami (cherry blossom viewing).

Onigiri- Japanese Rice Balls

Traditionally onigiri are triangular in shape...they are not the massively over-sized hunks of rice sold at some sushi stores that you can't seem to eat all the way through with your dignity still in tact, because they never, ever, stay together!
You don't need to season the rice with vinegar (that would make it sushi). But if you like you can add a bit of salt to the water that you dip your hands in (wetting your hands first will stop the rice from sticking to them).

Panda Onigiri with Rolled Sweet Egg Omelette and Edamame

How to make the perfect onigiri:

• To make a manageable sized onigiri, place a spoonful of warm rice (you can briefly microwave leftover rice) in the palm of one hand .
• Add a teaspoon or so of your filling in the centre. This could be some chopped up leftover Teriyaki Chicken, tinned tuna mixed with (lots of) kewpie mayonnaise, or my personal favourite umeboshi (Japanese sour plums), or you can get creative and try putting other things in the middle too, the skies the limit (let me know how it turns out). You can get some amazing additive-free locally grown umeboshi from Masako Fisher at Yumesato Farm, beware of the Chinese chemically flavoured ones in stores- not so good.
• Put some more rice on top to cover the filling.
• Cup your hands together like you are holding a small creature inside that you don't want to escape...and closing your hands around the rice squish to form a triangular prism. Keep on turning and squishing so your onigiri is nice and firm and a definite triangular shape.
• You can leave your onigiri as is, or roll it in some sesame seeds or katsuobushi (bonito flakes), or cut a strip of nori to wrap around it (pack this separately if you are taking it for lunch). 

Making a good shaped onigiri takes a bit of practice, but if you find it too tricky there are some super cute rice moulds that you can purchase at Asian stores. Recently I found this cute panda rice mould and nori cutter on Trade Me. DD loves it and it's the perfect size for her little hands.

Furikake rice seasoning

If you just can't stand eating plain rice...or you want to get your kids to eat more, you can buy rice seasonings (furikake) in all sorts of flavours, the one pictured is nori and egg (noritama). You can also buy seasonings for onigiri that you just stir through. 

Would love to hear about your creations or if you found this helpful :)