busychopsticks: Tuna Sambal Onigiri

For 12 years of my school days, my grandma had freshly prepared my Doshirak ( lunch box or Bento) every morning from scratch. I can't say mine was always better than theirs but I know for sure that my grandma prepared each one with lots of love. She used to pack 3-4 Banchans with rice and a pack of salted Gim (dried seaweed). Now I start my day by making Doshirak for my son early in the morning. This is one of his favorites. He says he gets envious and curious look from his friend and even teachers whenever he eats this strange looking black and triangle thing.

to make 4 Onigiris,

You will need

from left and back

seasoning vinegar

mayonaise (preferably Japanese)

black peppers

canned tuna

If's versatile Sambal

sesame oil

triangle Onigiri mold

Doshirak (also called Bento)

and

short grain rice, Gim (dried seaweed sheets/ also called nori)

Prepare Sushi rice: cook 1 Cup of rice with 1 Cup of water. To mix the rice with vinegar later after cooking, it should be drier than normal cooked rice. As soon as it's done, spread the rice in a wide bowl to evaporate the steam and extra moisture. Season the rice with 3 Tbsp (more depends on you taste ) of seasoned vinegar. The rice should taste mildly sweet, salty and sour. Leave it to cool down to the room temprature.

While the rice is cooling down, prepare tuna Sambal: squeeze out the preserving liquid from tuna. Mix tuna with 2 Tbsp of Mayo, 1 tsp of Sambal, 1/2 tsp of sesame oil, a big pinch of salt, a few grinds of balck peppers.

Using the onigiri mold, make Onigiri. First put some rice on the bottom half, make a hole with a thumb in the middle and fill it with 1/4 of the tuna mixture then cover the upper half with the rice layer like the picture above.

Unmold the rice carefully. Cut the seaweed sheet to halves and wrap the triangle rice with seaweed like the following picture.