Onigiri Fillings Recipe — Japanese Rice Balls (Easy) with Salmon and Avocado
Inspired by one of the most popular versions of onigiri, "tuna mayo". This is my new take on a traditional onigiri with fillings. The filling is still simple with only three key ingredients: salmon, avocado, and mayonnaise.
Ingredients
Rice
- ¾ cup Japanese short-grain rice equal to one "rice cooker cup"
- 200 ml water ⅞ US cup
- ¼ teaspoon salt fine-grained sea salt or kosher salt
Fillings (& Topping)
- 1 teaspoon mayonnaise
- 1 fillet salmon
- 2 pinches sea salt
- ½ avocado medium size
- 4 leaves shiso perilla
Wrap and Wasabi Mayo Drizzle
- 1 sheet dried nori seaweed
- 1 tablespoon ground white sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon mayonnaise
- ½ teaspoon wasabi
Instructions
Filling and Topping (prep)
- Cut half of an avocado into small chunks. Set aside.
- Rinse and dry shiso leaves with paper towel. Remove the end of the stems and finely slice leaves into thin strips. Set aside.
- Sprinkle sea salt on top of the salmon fillet. Set aside.
- Add wasabi and mayonnaise to a small dish. Use chopsticks or a spoon to mix together. Cover and keep refrigerated until needed.
Fillings (cooking)
- Turn on stove to low heat to pre-heat pan for 1-2 minutes.
- Add mayonnaise to the center of pan and spread out with a spoon to make a vertical line.
- Place salmon fillet directly on top of mayonnaise. Turn up the heat slightly.
- Once salmon is nearly halfway cooked through, use a spatula to turn fillet over.
- When salmon is nearly cooked through, add avocado chunks to the pan. Continue to cook on low-medium heat.
- Add sliced perilla leaves on top of salmon fillet and avocado.
- Using a spatula, break apart salmon into bite-sized pieces and gently mix all the filling ingredients together.
- Once the salmon is cooked through and all the ingredients are mixed together, use a spatula to scoop the fillings mix into a bowl.
Preparing Rice
- Transfer freshly cooked rice from your rice cooker or pot to a large bowl or glass baking dish.
- Using a spatula, gently spread out the rice to cover the bottom of your bowl.
- Sprinkle with salt (¼ tsp) and mix into rice by lightly tossing and folding over.
- Cool the rice until you no longer see clouds of steam and the rice has cooled just enough that you can hold it in your bare hands.
Shape Onigiri by Hand
- Fill a bowl with room temperature water and a small dish with salt. Keep these nearby to use as needed.
- Using your spatula, divide the cooked rice into three equal sections in your bowl or pan.
- Dip both of your (immaculately clean) hands into your bowl of water. Shake off the excess water.
- Next, lightly dip your wet fingers into a small dish of salt. Rub the salt to cover your palms.
- Using your hands or spatula, scoop up enough rice to make one onigiri.
- First, like making a snowball in two hands, gently form the rice into a sphere. Make it a ball shape but not too compact.
- Press the center of your ball of rice to make an indentation. Make it deep and wide. You want ample space to stuff lots of filling.
- Stuff fillings inside the indented space. You can use a spoon, chopsticks, or your fingers to press the fillings in to make space for adding more until the space is completely full and compacted.
- Cup the palms of your hand to enclose the filling inside the indented space, closing the opening tightly until you can no longer see the fillings.
- Place the sphere of rice in the palm of your non-dominant hand. Bend your palm to make a v-shaped "valley".
- Bend the fingers of your other hand to make an upside-down v-shape. Cover the rice ball with your V-shaped dominant hand. Your dominant hand makes a "mountain" to cover the rice— think Mt. Fuji.
- Then, gently squeeze the rice ball with your top v-shaped hand to form one corner of a triangle.
- Next, flip the rice ball 90 degrees towards you. The first corner of your triangle should now be resting on the palm of your bottom hand.
- Again, gently squeeze with your top, v-shaped hand to form another corner to make a triangle.
- Repeat this rotate and squeezing process until you've made a neat triangle shape.
Wrap Onigiri with Nori Seaweed
- Cut nori seaweed sheet into strips. I prefer to cut strips ⅓ of a full-size sheet.
- Hold the onigiri in one hand. Lay the strip of nori horizontally across the bottom third of the rice ball. The shiny side of the nori strip should face out and the rougher side faces the rice ball.
- Fold the left and right ends of the nori strip around the sides of the onigiri. The nori should come together at the front of the onigiri, resembling the way a kimono is wrapped.
- Press the nori gently against the rice to help it stick.
- Tuck the ends under the two bottom corners and base of the onigiri triangle. Again, press gently until the ends stick to the rice.
- Stand the onigiri vertical on a plate.
- Sprinkle ground white sesame seeds over the top.
- Using chopsticks, spoon, or clean fingers, add extra fillings on top corner of onigiri. You'll need to balance the toppings just right so they don't topple over.
- Drip wasabi mayo over the toppings.
- Serving onigiri warm for the best taste. Or, set them aside to let them cool to room temperature.
Notes
Important note: Cook the fillings before removing rice from your rice cooker or pot.
If needed, please find the links for how to cook Japanese rice in my how to make easy onigiri recipe post.
The best ratio for Japanese white rice to water is 1 to 1.1 (or 1.2).
If want to make 3 larger onigiri, I recommend using 1 cup of uncooked rice with 260 ml of water.
I use a heat-resistant shallow glass bowl or Pyrex baking dish for the cooked rice. Glass is preferable to a metal one because glass does not retain heat. A wooden salad bowl that isn't seasoned (garlic, etc) is another good option.
You can dip your spatula in the bowl of water so the rice doesn't stick to it.
In Japan, cooks use an uchiwa hand-held fan to cool down freshly cooked rice. You can use something like a piece of cardboard or stack of papers to use as a fan.
Ideally, attach the nori strips right before serving to maintain the crispness of the nori.
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