Making Onigiri, First Attempt

As I am highly fascinated with anything Japan since childhood (where I'm DYING to go to), I've always wanted to try some Japanese food. Interestingly enough, Japanese food is actually easy to find here in Malaysia, such as the Takoyaki, Teriyaki, Sushi, and Onigiri.

And speaking of onigiri, I have seen them sold in AEON supermarkets and recently, at Family Mart in Mid Valley Megamall. I have tried eating one, but never made one myself. And so, in this new blog post, I am writing about my first attempt in making a Tuna Mayo Onigiri.


THE INGREDIENTS

The ingredients required are of the following:

• Sushi Rice (shown above is Sumo Calrose variety)
• Mayonnaise (my suggestion, Lady's Choice or Kewpie)
• Seaweed (shown above is Tao Kae Noi Crispy Seaweed)
• Tuna (shown above is Ayam Brand Tuna Chunks in Water variety)

In order to make the onigiri, I quickly searched the shops in my area for the required ingredients to make them, and bought them last Saturday. Good thing is, the sushi rice is available at 99 Speedmart, so I bought it right away. The other three ingredients (mayonnaise, tuna and seaweed) are much easier to find, so I have nothing to worry about.


MAKING THE ONIGIRI

The first thing I do is cooking the rice. I simply followed the instructions written at the package and mix one cup of rice with two cups and water and cook them inside a rice cooker.

Once the rice has cooked, I need to wait for a while to cool the rice slightly. Here, I opened a can of tuna...

...and drained all the water out of the tuna can.

After that, I emptied the tuna can into the same bowl I was holding.

As they say, looks can be deceiving. As shown above, the bowl is too small for me to mash the tuna, necessitating me to use something larger.

I took a larger, but shallower bowl (actually a plate) and put the tuna in.

Next, I emptied a packet of mayonnaise onto the tuna...

...and mashed and mixed the tuna along with a small pinch of salt with the mayonnaise.

However, as it turns out, the mayonnaise appears somewhat insufficient, so I can now conclude that I need approximately two packets of mayonnaise for one can of tuna.

After waiting for a while, I scooped about one and a quarter scoop of rice into a similar plate I used to mash the tuna, spreading it.

Next, I scooped a generous amount of tuna and placed it on the rice and tried making a triangular shape while dipping my hand in a bowl of water (not pictured here).

Unfortunately, it was here that I found out that I have put too much tuna for this onigiri, to the point that some of the tuna is visible on the outside.

Finally, I took one strip of seaweed and put it as pictured above.


THE RESULT

This is the end result. As shown above, some of the tuna is visible on the outside. However, since this is my first attempt in making onigiri, it is nothing to be ashamed of.

As for the taste, it was okay. Still, there are some things I need to improve:

1. Add slightly more mayonnaise for the tuna
2. Don't add too much tuna into the rice

So after learning from my mistakes here, God willing, I will make another onigiri correctly soon.

RemainUnknown522 Out.