Kombu Onigiri Recipe (Tsukudani Rice Balls)

Hey everyone, I'm Yuto and today on Stachy I'm going to show you how to make a delicious plant-based rice ball using leftover kombu, simmered in a simple yet flavourful broth. Let's get to it. First you'll need 50 grams of rehydrated kombu, that's about 10 grams or so before soaking. Cut it into thin strips, about three millimetres thick. This was kombu leftover from making homemade dashi. I didn't have time to use it straight away so I froze it and defrosted it for the video. This recipe is a great way to use up leftover kombu instead of throwing it away. If you want to learn more about making dashi, check out my other video. Okay, once it's all cut let's make our tsukudani. Add the kombu to a pan along with 500 millilitres of water, two tablespoons of sake and a teaspoon of rice vinegar. Turn on the heat to medium so that we can bring that to a boil. The sake and rice vinegar help soften the texture and balance the flavour of the kombu. Once it starts to bubble, lower the heat to a simmer and let it cook uncovered until the liquid has reduced to a little less than half. This generally takes about 20 minutes. Okay, this is looking good so now I'm adding one tablespoon of mirin, two tablespoons of soy sauce and a tablespoon of light brown sugar. Mix it around and turn the heat back up to medium. From this point we just want to cook it until the liquid is gone. Mix it from time to time to make sure nothing burns or sticks to the bottom of the pan. When it's thick and sticky like this, turn off the heat and mix in half a tablespoon of sesame seeds. This is ready to use straight away so let's make our rice balls. So here I have a bowl of water to wet my hands. This will stop the rice from sticking. Sprinkle your palms with a couple of pinches of salt. This will season the rice on the outside and helps preserve it. Next I have some freshly cooked rice that I made in my rice cooker. Each rice ball uses about 100 to 250 grams of rice depending on how big you want it to be. Roll it into a ball and flatten it a bit like this. Then make a dent and add about one teaspoon worth of filling. You can add a bit more rice on top if you feel like it needs it but in general just fold the rice in half to encase the filling. Then press and turn to make it into a rounded triangle. You can add more filling if you like but this kombu tsukudani is rich and flavourful so a little goes a long way. If you're not so confident in your shaping skills or just want to save time, I seriously recommend these plastic rice ball moulds from Daiso. Simply fill it up halfway, add the kombu tsukudani and then fill it up to the top. Press the lid down to pop the rice tightly then take it off. Flip over and pop it out using the tab on the back. The final step is wrapping the rice ball in some crispy nori. And that's it! Delicious rice balls filled with homemade kombu tsukudani. I hope you enjoyed that one and if you want to learn more rice ball recipes check out the other videos on my channel or recipes on my blog. Links are in the description. Thanks for watching, I hope to see you next time. Have a great day!