Rice ball basics

[bettyboop]

ok... we eat a ton of rice being gluten (and casein) free here. I have a Zoji rice maker. I have tried sushi and other types of rice to make rice balls and i have a little mold as well. but by the time it gets to be lunch, they taste terrible. What's the secret? we can't do soy sauce...but can do other acids. DS is a picky eater but has tried these when I have a ton of salt on them. Also can you make rice balls with some sort of brown rice? I hate the thought of just doing white rice. I'm a health nut that way. We get plenty of 'white stuff' in our potato chips so I like to up the nutritional ante when I can. thanks and regards,

[Pangolin]

You could mix white and brown rice together which would help hold the onigiri together. What exactly is wrong with the rice? You said it tasted terrible, what exactly is wrong with it? There are a variety of ways to flavor the rice including all kinds of sauces, spices, furikake, and dressings that could either mix in or drip on top as you are eating the onigiri. You could also stuff them to make them more exciting - there are a couple threads on here about fillings. If the texture is not as nice as you'd like, wrap the warm onigiri in saranwrap when you make them, you can let them cool toroom temp before you put them in your lunch. At lunch time, unwrap them and they'll have stayed more moist and stuck together.

There is some soy sauce out there that is gluten-free (my aunt is gluten free and loves Asian foods of all kinds and couldn't give up the soy sauce!). Here is a list of gluten free soy sauces and stirfry sauces from http://celiac-disease.com/.

[Folly]

If you want an alternate to white rice, try Haiga rice. It looks like white rice (maybe a little darker) but retains the rice germ. Not quite as dry or chewy as brown rice. Haiga makes a nice rice ball.

For more flavor, you can try using dashi or chicken stock in place of water when cooking your rice. Shitake broth (with the shitake sliced finely) is also a nice addition for a mild, yet earthy flavor.

For flavorings, you will find a lot of good ideas on this forum. Fillings. Furikake sprinkled on top. Nori wraps. Sushi vinegar lightly sprinkled on to the warm rice before molding. My gluten-sensitive friends use tamari in place of soy sauce. Be sure to check the ingredient label, however. Some tamari brands do use wheat in their brewing process.