I first tried making these rice balls because the boy kept complaining about his school meal caterer serving up horribly plain and tasteless food. I thought these rice balls were easy enough to make yet really tasty, without needing too much of a fuss in the kitchen.
For my first attempt, I thought to try out making the balls with a more Korean flavour, adding in sesame oil and seaweed. But you can basically add in anything that’s easy to stir into the rice with (e.g. tuna flakes, ham, kimchi, anchovies, meat etc) – there are infinite flavours and ways you can make these rice balls so the flexibility is there. It’s also easy to pack into lunch boxes. I hope you like this recipe as much as we did!
Ingredients:
- Salmon: 1 fillet, bones removed
- Salt: to taste
- Ground blackpepper: to taste
- Sushi rice: 1.5 cups, washed 7 times, soaked 10min
- Kombu (dried kelp): 1
- Sushi vinegar: 1 tbsp
- Japanese soy sauce: 2 tbsp
- Sesame oil: 1 tbsp (I used the leftover oil from frying the salmon)
- Seaweed: 2 tbsp
- Furikake (or sesame seeds): 2 tbsp
Method:
- Fry salmon with salt and blackpepper till cooked on both sides. Remove and cool, then flake.
- Cook sushi rice with kombu. Leave to cool and discard kombu.
- Combine sushi rice with sushi vinegar, salmon flakes, soy sauce, sesame oil & seaweed.
- Using a pair of oiled plastic gloves, place 2 tbsp of rice mixture onto palm. Roll and shape into a ball, pressing it in tightly. Repeat with the rest.
- Roll the balls in furikake to serve.
Disclaimer:
This recipe was kindly adapted from Jaja Bakes’ ‘Salmon Rice Balls‘.
Serving:
10 – 12 balls (medium-sized)