Monday, May 3, 2010

Bottarga Onigiri (rice balls)


Life is good.


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Life is so good with donabe. Today, I made onigiri (rice balls) with the donabe rice. As always, the rice was cooked with the double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", for perfection. This wasn't going to be the "regular" onigiri, because I made onigiri with bottarga (cured mullet roe) from Corsica!! It was the most decadent version, because I grated the whole piece of bottarga to mix with 2 rice-cups of short grain rice.


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As soon as the rice was cooked, I tossed it with the grated bottarga. The rice was then shaped into triangle-shape onigiri rice balls.


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You can wrap the onigiri with the nori in any way you like. The nori I used is called "Aotobi Nori" from Mikawa Bay of Aichi, Japan. It's aromatic and really crisp.


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The taste was simply sublime. The subtle saltiness of the bottarga coated each grain of the shiny rice. The slightly chewy texture of the bottarga and rice was so lovely.

SO AMAZING. Happy donabe life.