Miso Eggplant Onigiri
Life is so weird right now. Daylight savings has caused my schedule to go all out of whack. Reuben has been working from home with me for the last week because of the whole Conoravirus scare in the city. We’ve unearthed 2 unwatched seasons of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation and have gotten sucked into the same drama they’ve been arguing about for 10 years. So, I’m not really sure what’s going on these days.
How are you? Are you working from home as well? Working from home is nothing new to me, but having the addition of another person home with me all day has it’s pluses and minuses.
Plus: I actually make real food for breakfast and lunch now. When it’s just me I nibble on some form of day old bread in the morning and continue to nibble on the new bread I’m testing throughout the day. SO MANY BUNS. With Reuben home with me, I’m making immune boosting soups and brussels sprout salad with crispy chicken thighs for lunch… he’s so spoiled.
Minuses: I’m slightly less productive because we keep putting on CNN to get updates on Coronavirus and the Election. It’s really bumming me out and it’s also incredibly difficult to write a narrative about milk bread when everyone is telling you to be terrified to go outside.
I hope you’re staying healthy and safe out there! I really wish we could go back to normal life and not be afraid of every surface we touch, but if you’re also holding yourself up at home, take advantage of your easy access to the kitchen and get cooking! I’m sharing these Miso Eggplant Onigiri today and they would make the perfect snack to keep you sane and full all week!
Braised Miso Eggplant
This miso eggplant filling is, for lack of a better, so tasty! It’s very savory from the dark soy sauce and a little sweet from a bit of sugar. There is a sushi place in Tahoe that Reuben and I love eating at whenever we’re up there and he’s obsessed with their Nasu Misoshigi, which is essentially this filling with some warm white rice. So we’re just wrapping it all up with a sheet of roasted nori to make it best portable snack.
Chinese or Japanese eggplant (the long skinny ones) is braised with onions, miso (for a little funk), salt, sugar, white pepper, and water, and dark soy until soft and tender. If you have any extra filling leftover throw it on a rice plate and call it dinner!
The Easiest Way to Form Onigiri
I first made onigiri from scratch about 5 years ago. The first time was sort of disaster… at the time, I didn’t realize that you need to wet your hands so that the rice doesn’t stick to them. I’ll let you use your imagination to visualize how those onigiri looked. I also let my rice cool down too much so the rice wasn’t sticking together when I packed them tightly. Warm rice = well formed rice balls! So the rice wasn’t sticking to what it needed to be sticking to and sticking to what it shouldn’t be sticking to. You got that?
From then on, I learned my lesson. I also introduced the help of the humble plastic wrap! I know we’re all trying to reduce our plastic usage, but there’s a time and place for the clingy nonstick stuff! If you’re a pro at forming onigiri, then ignore this trick. If not, here are a V simple steps to forming onigiri.
Place a piece of plastic wrap on your work surface.
Wet your hands and place a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of warm sushi rice onto the plastic wrap. Flatten the rice into a paddy.
Place a heaping tablespoon of miso eggplant filling onto the rice.
Top the filling with another 1/4 cup of rice.
Gather the ends of the plastic wrap together and apply pressure to the onigiri, forming it into either a triangle or circle.
Unwrap the onigiri and place inside a half sheet of roast nori.
Fold the nori over the rice so that it sticks. Repeat with remaining onigiri.
Eat them!
Miso Eggplant Onigiri
makes 7-8 onigiri
materials:
2 cup sushi rice
3 cup water
3 tbsp olive oil
2 scallions - finely chopped
1/4 cup red onion - finely chopped
1 chinese or japanese eggplants - chopped into 1” cubes
1 tbsp miso
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
8 half sheets of roasted nori (seaweed)
steps:
To cook sushi rice, rinse rice under cold water until the water runs clear. Combine rice and 3 cups of water in a rice cooker and steam until done.
While the rice is cooking, make the miso eggplant filling. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add green and red onions to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until tender and fragrant. Increase heat to medium high and add eggplant. Season with miso, sugar, salt, and white pepper. Toss the eggplant and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the water and dark soy sauce continue to cook for 10 more minutes, until the eggplant is tender and the sauce has thickened. Allow the miso eggplant filling to cool before filling onigiri.
Once the rice has cooked, fluff the rice and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes so that the temperature is safe to handle. You want to form the onigiri while the rice is still warm so it sticks together.
To form the onigiri, place a sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface. Place about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of rice on the plastic wrap. Flatten the rice. Place 1 heaping tablespoon of eggplant filling. Top the eggplant with another 1/4 cup of rice. Wet your hands to help the rice not stick to them. Gather the ends of the plastic wrap together and apply pressure to the onigiri, forming it into either a triangle or circle. Unwrap the onigiri and place inside a half sheet of roast nori. Fold the nori over the rice so that it sticks. Repeat with remaining onigiri.
Enjoy the onigiri fresh!
storing notes:
If eating these immediately, wrap in nori right away and enjoy. If eating in a few hours or later, wrap the rice balls individually in in plastic wrap and wrap in nori right before eating for a crisper nori texture.
The rice balls can be kept in the fridge, but the rice will harden. Gently reheat the rice balls in the microwave with a damped paper towel over the rice balls. Microwave in increments of 30 seconds until just heated through. Wrap in nori and enjoy.