How do I use my nigiri-press?

[bezz]

Noooooo no butter!!

Another one that is as bad: ham, egg and cheese grilled rice ball, to be served with ketchup.

Link

 

[knina102]

bloopers..

I always want to try make onigiri, the triangle one with my hands instead of using the press...and always fail...so sad. Perhaps because of the rice preparation and stuff....is it the same as to prepare sushi rice? with mirin? tasukete kudasai...

 

[undrentide]

I always want to try make onigiri, the triangle one with my hands instead of using the press...and always fail...so sad. Perhaps because of the rice preparation and stuff....is it the same as to prepare sushi rice? with mirin? tasukete kudasai...

No, when you are making onigiri, nothing should be added to the rice - just cooked rice.
What goes wrong when you are making onigiri? If you can elaborate, we might be able to help you.

- Short grain should be used (but if you've already made sushi, you are already using correct kind of rice...) The rice should be a bit chunky so you can take a mouthful with chopsticks. If the rice is flaky - I mean, like it is impossible to pick up a small amount with chopsticks, then you cannot make onigiri with it. But at the same time the rice should not be mushy.
- You need to give it a good squeeze. Otherwise onigiri crumbles too easily.
- You have to squeeze it while the rice is still very hot (maybe this can be the most difficult part of it.)

 

[knina102]

The rice

Hm...well, now come to think of it, most likely the cause of my blunders is the rice. I used the so called short grain rice, but Canadian's brand. With this, the end result always mushy rice, or perhaps I need to reduce the water..... or perhaps I ought to buy real short grain Japanese rice. Will try then Arigatou gozaimasu!

 

[yukio_michael]

It might be how you are preparing the rice. As for the type of rice, I'm quite a novice when it comes to product brand-names, I just go to my local Korean market and buy some rice that looks familiar to me and says "sushi rice" on it.

You should use a rice cooker, or a rice-steamer though if you want to get consistent cooking results. Right now, I'm using a rice-steamer, which is not the best, I prefer a rice cooker which has a warmer... It's a great investment if you eat a lot of rice.

 

[undrentide]

Here's "how to cook rice in a pot" with photos which I posted at a different forum sometime ago.
http://www.celifornia.com/forum/index.php?topic=56.0