Rice Balls

Sometimes you want lunch to be easy. Oh, did I say lunch? I meant life. But in the meantime...

Make rice balls!

What's more fun than an edible ball that you can pick up with your hands, bite into and find magic inside? Nothing! Hostess cupcakes mastered this art but can, like many nostalgic food products, lead to regret when revisited later in life. See also: Ding Dongs and Hot Pockets.

But the Japanese have got this area covered. Though some venture into ridiculousness I do have to bow in respect. I can't really venture to call my rice balls "onigiri", as that would be like calling half-thawed, partially cooked fish sticks "sushi". But I like to imagine myself stumbling up to the pantheon of rice gods to one day stand upon their big toes, if not their shoulders.My recipe, very loosely adapted (more like "inspired by") Harumi Kurihara's "Harumi's Japanese Cooking" and my friend Mandy.

Shiitake Mushroom Filling
Fresh shiitake mushrooms -- about 3-4 ounces
3 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine / mirin

Clean the mushrooms, remove the stems and slice thinly. Put in a saucepan with the soy sauce and rice wine. If it looks like they need more liquid, add more but keep the proportions the same. Bring to a boil, reduce to a quick simmer, and cook until the mushrooms have absorbed all the liquid. If you like spicy, add the spice sauce of your choice.

Rice
I made one rice cooker cup of short grain brown rice in the rice cooker. If you do it on the stove, good luck, and make about 1/2 cup dry rice (which yields 1 to 1/2 cups cooked rice).

Balls
Take a piece of plastic wrap and put it on your work surface. Using a spoon (dipped in cold water if you really want to), pat out a spoonful of rice to about a palm-sized circle. The rice should be a thin but smooth layer. Place about a teaspoon of mushroom filling in the center, then gather the plastic wrap and bring the whole thing together into a ball. Squeeze or cinch the plastic wrap to smoosh the rice into place. Repeat until you have used all the rice or all the filling, whichever comes first. Mine would have made about 8 rice balls but I ate a bunch of the rice when it first came out. 4 rice balls per person, if accompanied by other stuff, should be plenty.

Sprinkle the top of the rice balls with Japanese rice seasoning of your choice, if you want to get all fancy schmancy like me.