■ Southwest-Onigiri Recipe/Process!

Just a little low-key update to ease back into the habit of posting here!

Knocked out my taxes today and did some much needed spring-cleaning of my filing cabinet (more of a box...really), that took most of the day so I guess it doesn't feel like I've done much this weekend so far! I did do some cooking however and think I've cobbled together a really cool southwest take on onigiri? I'm gonna take another whack at it tomorrow to make some lunches to take with me to work! I wanted to document this lil southwest-nigiri recipe here:

The base is more or less the same as any onigiri you'd make, wash and cook your rice, but in addition to throwing in some dried Kombu seaweed for flavor, toss in some dried ancho chilies while you're at it! Ancho chilli pepper goes into a lot of texmex and makes a nice, mild spicy base for your rice to cook in along with the traditional flavor of kombu! I'd throw in about five peppers to cup of rice/water. For my first try  I did only three and to be honest it didn't show up too much, it was there, but not as strong as I would have liked?

While your rice is cooking, mix your filling! Recently I've been addicted to stuffing my rice balls with smoked salmon, its easy to prep and mix up with just about any flavor I'm craving and can be really good on its own too, plus its sold here in little packs that often make a good amount of filling for anywhere from six to eight rice balls! (I've found I can reliably make maybe three good size onigiri per cup of rice! So depending on how you divy things out you may wind up with more rice or less filling or the reverse! Save leftovers for fried rice later?)

Mince your smoked salmon, add a splash of umami black garlic sauce, a squirt of ranch (I know, trust me) and add: chilli powder, smoked paprika, and cracked black pepper to taste! No salt, the salmon will likely be salty enough on its own and your rice will be plenty salty after handling it! Mix this all up to coat your fish and set it aside to marinate while your rice finishes up!

Once that rice is cooked and cool enough to handle in your hands, make Onigiri as you do! Cold water and salt for your hands and such so it don't stick to you and is easy to shape and firm up, or use those lil molds you can find online! (lightly oiling or sprinkling some salt water in there helps the rice come out once its shaped I've found!)

Toss with sesame seeds and more smoked paprika for color, wrap with nori, top with leftover filling so ya know what you filled it with (if needed/you have leftover tasty filing bits) and serve right away while still warm or store for a nice meal later!

The result is still pretty close to a really traditional onigiri flavor profile but with that unique pop of spices found in southern cooking, the ranch mellows things out a bit and adds its own unique tang too if you're not too big one really spicy things, but really, these only turn out as spicy as you make em so they're adjustable!

I'm kind of writing from the assumption folk passing by may know how to make onigiri, but if not and anyone is curious, just comment and I'll update this with some proper links to videos, recipes and tips that helped me when I started learning how to make these tasty little jelly filled donuts Japanese snacks!