Yaki Onigiri with spicy tuna

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In my former life, I went to Japan a bunch of times, and I always enjoyed eating there. I can’t wait to go back there. In supermarkets, onigiri, these rice triangles, filled with cooked tuna, cooked salmon, or a salted plum, can easily be found, but they can also take other shapes (dumplings, rectangles etc.). As soon as they are grilled (usually on a small grill), they are yaki onigiri (yaki = grilled). Here, I make them in the pan and I also put furikake, a condiment that gives a delicious taste to the rice. I enjoyed this recipe which is much easier to make than it looks!

For 10 yaki onigiri:

• 330g of sushi rice
• 415g of water
• after cooking : furikake

Sushi vinegar:

• 50g of sugar
• 10ml of mirin
• 70ml of rice vinegar
• 5g of salt

For the spicy tuna:

• 55g of mayonnaise
• 10g of sriracha
• 140g canned tuna (drained net weight)

For cooking and tasting:

• 1 teaspoon of oil for cooking
• clear soy sauce to devour

Start by washing the sushi rice.

Rinse and drain. Put it in a rice cooker or saucepan.

 

Pour in the water (415g) and turn on.

Meanwhile, mix sugar, mirin, vinegar and salt in a bowl.

 

When the rice is cooked, unplug the rice cooker without the lid. Let it cool a little and then pour it into a container. Pour in the vinegar sauce gradually. Don’t put everything! Mix without crushing the grains of rice, you must be very careful.

I put in about 3/4 of the sauce and save the rest for another time. But if you prefer more vinegar, then add more!

This is furikake, a Japanese condiment for rice. You can find it in Japanese grocery stores, in more general Asian grocery stores and also online. There are a lot of different kinds.

I season the rice with a good tablespoon. Mix carefully.

Prepare the tuna. Flake the 140g of drained tuna with a fork.

Here is the Japanese mayonnaise, but feel free to use another mayonnaise. The red pot is the sriracha sauce.

Add the sauces and mix well.

 

Here is the small onigiri mold. You can do without it and do it all by hand, but it’s still much more convenient with it! I bought the best one at Kioko in Paris, but you can find it online.

Put a first layer of rice making a kind of cavity.

With about 20g of tuna per onigiri.

Replace with rice. There should be at least 6mm of rice on top of the tuna.

Put on the small lid, press, then carefully remove from the pan.

Heat a frying pan with a little oil (not too much because the rice may fall apart…) then grill the onigiri until they have an amber color.

Brush both sides with clear soy sauce, then apply a sheet of seaweed cut to size.

All that’s left to do is to enjoy it with soy sauce!