Miso Pork Onigiri for Zoro: Inspired by One Piece
Inspired by Roronoa Zoro, my favourite directionally challenged swordsman! I am making a miso and soy pork filled onigiri that I believe Sanji would have absolutely made for him. Ongiri are simple, versatile, and delicious! This pork filling is bursting with umami from the miso paste, soy sauce, mirin, and garlic. Fresh fluffy rice filled with the delicious pork filling and wrapped in nori is just tooo good! You absolutely have to make it for yourselves. I’m sure that if Sanji made these for Zoro, he wouldn’t leave over a single grain of rice, and neither will you!
Ingredients
- 2 large garlic cloves minced
- 2 Tbsp white miso
- 2 tsp water
- 1 Tbsp teaspoon mirin
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce gluten free if necessary
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 350 g thinly sliced pork belly or shoulder shabu shabu style
- Salt
- Fresh steamed Japanese rice I usually use about 4 rice cooker cups of uncooked rice
- Nori seaweed
Instructions
- Wash rice thoroughly and cook
- Make a very small bowl of salt and set aside
- In a small bowl, mix the garlic, miso, mirin, soy sauce, sugar and water together.
- In a pan on medium high heat, cook the pork until almost fully cooked through. Pour the sauce into the pan and continue to cook until browned, lightly caramelized and some of the edges are getting dark.
- Remove from heat and use either a knife or scissors to cut into small pieces.
- Use a paddle to cut the rice and let in a lot of air so it fluffs it up. Let cool slightly so you can handle the rice
- Make a ball of rice (about 1/3 or 1/2 cup), make a hole in the middle, add in a large spoonful of filling. Top with a bit more rice to close the ball.
- With damp hands, dip a finger into the salt and rub into your palms.
- Take the ball and press the rice ball into shape. (try doing this as few times as possible, the tighter you press the rice ball, the harder the rice ball will be.
- Make your hands into a triangle shape and press the sides into form, rotate each time.
- * Optionally, you can use a mold to do this!
- Decorate with your nori, and enjoy!