Author Notes
I had a roommate from college who surprised me with these onigiri on a road trip from Bennington to Burlington. When he was a kid, his mother made onigiri for every family road trips. I had never been so charmed by a snack before. I ate all of them almost immediately because I wanted to find out what was in the center of each. His were, of course, much prettier than mine. He covered them completely in nori and they were the size of a tennis ball. —Summer of Eggplant
Test Kitchen Notes
I love onigiri as a snack and I love avocado, so I was immediately sold on this combination. These rice balls are simple and yummy, and the gingery mayonnaise in the middle gives them a nice extra burst of flavor (though I still wound up eating mine with a little soy sauce for an extra salty punch). I loved learning the technique of using the plastic wrap to shape the rice into balls around the filling -- it worked marvelously. Now that I've finally tried making these myself, I'm sure they'll become a regular snack around here.? —fiveandspice
Ingredients
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1/2 teaspoon
grated ginger
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2 tablespoons
Kewpie mayonnaise
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4 cups
cooked sushi rice
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1/2
avocado sliced in to 1/2-inch pieces, run under cold water, and patted dry
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2
sheets toasted nori cut in to 1/2-inch strips
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1 teaspoon
sesame seeds
Directions
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Stir the ginger into the mayonnaise.
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Prepare a wide bowl full of salted water. You'll use to wet your hands to prevent the rice from sticking to them.
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Place a 12-inch by 12-inch piece of cling wrap in the center of a small bowl and sprinkle in some sesame seeds.
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Grab a golf ball-sized amount of rice, shape it into a ball, flatten it, and place it in the bowl with the cling wrap.
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Put two 1/2-inch avocado slices and a small dot of the mayonnaise in the center of the rice.
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Grab about a tablespoon of the rice and put it on top of the filling. Pull up the sides of the cling wrap and shape the contents into a ball. Remove.
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Wet your fingers in the salt water and drip a little on to the nori strip. Then, make a belt around the rice ball with the nori. Repeat. These should be made the day you intend to eat them.
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