Friday, March 15, 2013

Donabe-smoked "onigiri" rice balls and "tamago-yaki" rolled omelet


Since I got a lot of English peas...

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I made more English Peas & Hijiki Rice with my double-lid donabe rice cooker, "Kamado-san", and made onigiri (rice balls) with it.

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With a leftover onigiri, I decided to smoke it along with slices of my tamago-yaki (Japanese rolled omelet) including 9 kinds of Japanese seaweed, in donabe smoker, "Ibushi Gin". Wow, yes, I did! For this I used walnuts wood smoke chips.

Smoked Onigiri and Tamago-yaki with Ibushi Gin


Ingredients: for 1 serving
1 rice ball ("onigiri")
2 slices of Japanese rolled egg omelet ("tamago-yaki")
olive oil

Ohter things you need:
a piece of aluminum foil
a small handful (about 1/3 oz) of smoke chips
a piece of parchment paper

Procedure:
  1. Line a foil in the bottom of Ibushi Gin. Place the smoke chips on the foil and arrange them in a ring shape. Make sure the foil is tightly attached to the bottom.
  2. Set Ibushi Gin (with no lid) over high heat. Wait until the chips starts smoking (about 7-8 minutes).
  3. Set the mid-tier rack and place a parchment paper. Rub a small amount of olive oil on one side and place a onigiri. Also place tamago-yaki slices on the other side.
  4. Cover with lid and pour water into the rim surrounding the lid. Continue to heat for 5 minutes.
  5. Turn off the heat and let it rest (with the lid on) for 20 minutes.

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My leftover onigiri and tamago-yaki become something really special! I even sprinkled some smoked Szechuan pepper over the dish, and used smoked olive oil as a dip for the tamago-yaki. They tasted really nice. Onigiri had the nice smoky surface and inside was still fluffy. Honestly, I like my smoked onigiri much better than grilled onigiri! The walnut wood smoke chips added subtle nutty flavor to the dish and worked really great.

Happy donabe life.