happy onigirazu day! 🍙

You know the feels when watching fleeting clouds shift shape as the wind blows?  Yes, a happy moment.🙂 In this fast-paced generation, simple things are precious, and helps put us back in the right track.

Eating onigiri in any shape and form likewise evokes the same fillings (pun intended!) for me and my family.

Onigiri is a traditional Japanese rice ball. (Hurrah! Nihon!) There are many variations on its filling. In the few times I've been to Japan, I noticed that it was usually enjoyed for lunch or snacks; mostly by  students or busy workers on their quick breaks.

Onigirazu is similar to onigiri, only it's not round, but flat, quite easier to prepare for tiny hands of the little ones.

• TACTILE PREPping - kids can literally get their hands on this to help you prep (and how much do kids love to just get their hands into anything?)
• FUN TASTE TWEAKS - a smorgasbord of choices can cater to the unique tastes of the entire brood.
  want sour? use plum flakes.
  want fish? bonito or salmon flakes.
  want italian - pesto.
  want korean - sesame and sesame oil.
  ...the list goes ooooonnn.
• HEALTHY options - insert some veggies, or scrambled eggs, along with the usual fried protein (if anything's crispy fried, kids usually eat it, noh?)
• simply TASTY (hello fluffy Japanese rice) & salty seaweed...nom nom.
• SUBSTANTIAL. Even just a couple of this can be quite filling.
• CONVENIENT, hassle-free eating on the go!

Mise en place. The trick is to ready every tool and ingredient, and then have a go assembling, 1-2-3-pak!

🍙 Tools:
a clean counter or tray for onigirazu-making
a serving plate/platter/board
kitchen plastic wrap
knife

🍙 Ingredients:
Japanese rice, cooked and fluffed
seaweed nori sheets
furikake or rice sprinkles (sesame, bonito flakes, chili flakes, etc.)
salt
light soy sauce
fillings - 
    veggie: 1 cucumber, julienned
                1 carrot, julienned
    greens: lettuce, or perilla leaves
    protein: picnic ham, sausage, or luncheon meat slices, cooked
                3 eggs, scrambled, cooked, sliced into patty-like squares

🍙 Steps - rice:
1 In a bowl, mix rice and desired rice flavorings.
   options are endless - a tsp of soy sauce, or your fave furikake, or just plain salt.

🍙 Steps - sandwich:
1 Layer plastic wrap at the bottom, and add nori sheet on top, shiny side facing down (for a nice smooth glossy looking sandwich).
2 At the center of the nori sheet, spoon a portion of rice and flatten like a patty.
3 Add desired fillings.
4 Cover with another portion of rice and flatten like a patty.
5 Fold nori sheet towards the rice.
   Wrap like an envelope ✉ or a gift 🎁.
6 Wrap the sandwich tightly with plastic wrap.
7 Set aside on a chopping board.
 
 Repeat step 1 to 7 for remaining rice.

8 On the board, without unwrapping the plastic, slice each sandwich into half.
 
Serve and enjoy!

Here's a snap before it was snatched up 😜 to the tune of 🎵 Fillings, nothing more than fillings...🎵  

Here were my young uns, enjoying it a few cartwheels ago 🤸 (seemed only yesterday 😮 )

No judgment for corny jokes, spread love not hate. 😜
When this is up for the day's menu, it's truly a "Happy Onigirazu Day!" at home.

Happy nibblin'.

💡 Learned from: Ochikeron - Onigirazu (Rice Sandwiches)