Yaki-onigiri Chazuke (Grilled Rice Ball in Tea)
I love O-chazuke/Cha Pao Fan, which is rice steeped in hot tea. When I was young, if we stayed over at my grandparent’s house, my grandma would give us each a bowl right before we went to sleep. It was the only time we could sit in her bed and eat. Accompanying it would be assorted pickles, salted duck eggs, pork floss, furikake, or fermented bean curd depending on what was available at the time. These days I’ve developed the habit of making myself a bowl whenever I lose my appetite and have no idea what I want to eat (Yes, this actually happens to me sometimes!)
It’s easy, light, and nourishing, the fragrant flavor of the tea medling wonderfully with the rice. It clears my palate and allows me to refresh. There are so many combinations of flavors that could be created too (which I’ll post in the future.)
Today I decided to make yaki-onigiri, which is grilled rice balls that have been brushed with a soy sauce tare. I had a few leftover so I made a simple Ochazuke with a green tea dashi broth. The yaki onigiri is like Guo Ba, which is the cripsed rice on the bottom of a I use a jasmine green tea, although Oolong, Hojicha (roasted green tea), or another green leaf tea, all work as well. I put a dollop of butter just because I’m a little nuts and enjoy butter with my rice.
Ingredients
- 1 rice ball (made with sushi rice and a rice ball mold)
- Soy sauce tare (2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon mirin, 1/2 teaspoon sugar)
- Cooking oil
- 1 cup dashi-tea (equal parts dashi broth and tea)
- Scallions, minced (for garnish, optional)
- Toasted nori (for garnish, optional)
- Tsukemono (Japanese assorted pickles, optional)
- In a well oiled pan over medium high heat, grill the rice ball until crispy on each side. Brush with soy sauce tare and grill again until lightly charred on both sides, taking care not to burn as the sugar in the soy tare can burn easily.
- Place in a bowl and top with garnishes as you’d like.
- Pour in dashi-tea and serve with side dishes of pickles if you’d like.