Onigiri – Umeboshi (Pickled Plum)
Sharp, salty, and deeply traditional — a single pickled plum at the heart of fresh rice, a timeless Japanese pairing.
Ingredients
| 400 g | cooked Japanese short-grain rice, warm |
| 4 | umeboshi (pickled sour plums), pitted |
| 2 sheets | nori, cut into strips |
| — | salt for shaping |
Instructions
- Remove pits from the umeboshi if not already pitted.
- Wet your hands with cold water and rub a small pinch of salt onto your palms.
- Take about 1/2 cup (100g) of warm rice and flatten it in your palm. Place one umeboshi in the center of the rice.
- Fold the rice firmly around the plum and press into a triangle, rotating and compressing with both hands.
- Wrap the base with a strip of nori.
- Repeat with remaining rice and umeboshi. Best eaten within a few hours.