hello welcome to the travel pockets
cooking show
we're actually together cooking i don't
know we're always separate you know
since we're in quarantine
uh before that's when we were doing our
cooking videos but now we're together
cause i'm in california i did a road
trip
to see candy and stay with kenny for a
little bit so our road trips we like to
make
our specific road trip food it's um
always japanese food that we make with
us and we've got so many requests
to make this video so we're finally
doing it
uh and today's video we're going to show
you how to cook
onigiri which is rice balls
and also which is like japanese fried
chicken nuggets
and these are two super easy dishes to
make and
it's perfect to take with you on a road
trip yes i agree
so i'm going to start off and show you
how to make the rice balls so the one
thing you really want to get right with
this
is the type of rice you buy we're not
being biased but
definitely get japanese rice for rice
balls because if you get
any other type of rice it's not gonna
quite taste the way
you want it to this is the rice that we
buy it just happened to be on sale at
the japanese market
and it is japanese short green rice
so why do we get the short grain rice
because it has starch in it and you need
that starch to make the rice sticky
and that's what's going to hold or glue
the rice balls together so do not
do not buy rice that is a long grain for
example brown rice like this
is a no-no you will probably see on the
market um
other types of short grain rice for
example this
is korean short green rice which is
actually a pretty
good one i do it sometimes when i run
out of the japanese one so this is a
good alternative if you don't have a
japanese market and you have a korean
market near you
you know you can get like but get their
premium they it's usually labeled
premium rice so do that
and make sure short grain so without
further ado i'm going to show you how
then i wash it and prepare the rice
typically when you buy a rice cooker it
will come with a measuring cup so make
sure to use the measuring cup that comes
with the device because if you use a
regular measuring cup
it's a little bit different so make sure
you use the measuring cup that came with
your rice cooker or whatever
cooker you're using so i've already put
in two cups
and my rice cooker cooks up to three so
i'm gonna go ahead and fill one more
do three cups
and once i have that in there i
am going to rinse the rice about three
to four times in cold water
so i'll put it in water i'll squish it
around and mix it drain it and then i'll
repeat the process about three to four
times
all right so now that i have the water
measured to three cups
right here where it says white you can
see
i'm gonna stick this in the rice cooker
and my rice cooker is a japanese brand
called zojirushi but i did buy this in
the u.s so all the instructions
are in english and i am always in a
hurry so i'm going to set the menu to
make the rice
quick and then when i start this it's
going to give me that magic sound that
it's ready to cook
it's like i'm going to go to bed or
something lovely
okay so while that rice is cooking we're
gonna get started on preparing the
karaki which is the japanese fried
chicken nuggets
so the ingredients that you'll need for
this soy sauce
and you can get soy sauce basically
anywhere now that nowadays
next you will need cooking socket i
actually go to the liquor store
and buy sake and you can buy like the
cheapest one and i got
like a big bottle of it oh they have a
green one yeah
okay and then you'll also need meeting
and this is a sweet
um rice wine i mean i've seen this
sometimes in american
grocery stores in the asian section um
and also
just to let you know these are huge
bottles because we use them all the time
but they also sell them in really small
bottles you also need fresh ginger
and you want fresh ginger do not buy
powdered ginger and because you are
using fresh ginger you will need a
grater
and just make sure you're not using a
cheese grater this grater for ginger and
other types like um daikon is a little
bit different
and we'll also you know link below where
you can buy these uh graters and you can
also buy them in the asian market i
think i've actually bought this on
amazon
so they're very readily available and
last you'll need cornstarch
typically you actually use potato starch
for this
uh but cornstarch is much easier to find
oh i forgot to mention there is one more
ingredient oil
you want yeah you want to get vegetable
oil don't use olive oil because that
does not
um fry food very well it's very heavy oh
you know what
we keep on saying like yeah one more
thing okay so seriously one more thing
uh this is boneless skinless chicken
thighs you have to use chicken thighs we
actually try to use chicken breasts one
time and it did not come out great now
this is a 1.30 pounds but
yeah around like a pound and a half is
what i typically get
okay so all you have to do with the
chicken thighs is just cut it into
bite-sized pieces so i like to just cut
this
and strips thick strips first
and then kind of cube it after that
and you know take off any
bone sometimes when you get chicken uh
even though it says boneless sometimes
there are still little remnants of bones
so just make sure it's not in there
here's all our chicken yummy all
cut up see that
now that we have the chicken cut into
chunks crystal is going to put in the
soy sauce meeting second and then
i'm also going to cut up the ginger and
then grate it
i actually just eye this now because
i've made this so many times
two to three tablespoons of soy sauce
okay then sake about a tablespoon
or a tablespoon and a half somewhere
around there goes in the meaty
same thing about a tablespoon
[Music]
okay so now i'm gonna grate the ginger i
would say about a teaspoon
um it really depends on how much you
like ginger i love ginger so
i tend to put more than a teaspoon and i
always just eyeball it again because
i kind of just do it as
much as i like that's what it looks like
so then we have all the ingredients in
the bowl and now we're just going to mix
it up
you know swirl it around or you can use
your hands
okay so that's what it looks like
so we'll just let it sit here and
marinate for about 15 to 20 minutes
and while that's doing the marinading
then we can move on to
making your rice balls there are so many
variations of rice balls from just
regular salt with seaweed
or you can buy packets like this that's
what i usually do
and this is a wakame and hijiki with
also
red uh red plum and it's really easy to
use
basically all you do is mix this in with
the cooked rice
so that's what i'm gonna do right now so
here's the rice
and it does give you instructions on how
much to put but you know i just eyeball
it really is personal preference on how
much you want to use
so i kind of just sprinkle it on a
little bit here
and then once i sprinkle it kind of take
this
and when i use this packet i want to
make sure that the rice
is warm because the seaweed right now
is um it's dry and it hasn't expanded
yet
so what what i do is once this is um
mixed
and then after i make the shape of the
rice ball i'll wrap it in
the saran wrap and then if once it sits
for like a few minutes then the
seaweed will soften and will expand and
that's when it tastes the best
i'm horrible at making the shape of a
rice ball i don't i just can't do it for
some reason i've tried many times
just comes out looking deformed and i'm
kind of picky
i don't know why i like i like that
perfect triangle
so what i do is i buy these oniidi
shapers and i bought this on amazon
they're super cheap and the great thing
about this one is
the rice it's made so that the rice
doesn't actually stick which is great
because i bought one before
that didn't have this ridge on it where
it doesn't stick as i was constantly
having to wet it
then put the rice in it and i was kind
of a pain and messy but this makes it
super easy and it's under five dollars
and i got two sizes what came in a pack
of
um a big and a small and
all you really do is stick the rice in
here
you take the top and you press it down
there's a place here where you push it
out
and it pops right out and look it's so
clean it's so convenient
and it's a perfect triangle
there's another method to making the
rice balls and this is the way i've been
taught
at the japanese restaurant i used to
work at years ago when i was in college
and she told me that i need saran wrap
i'm like saran wrap i wouldn't need
something
um but if you're going to make the
traditional onigiri or rice balls it's
just
rice with salt and a seaweed
wrapped around it just like candy i'll
put the rice in a bowl first
and instead of using the rice seasoning
i'll put salt on it
and let's see i'll do one two three
four i'm going to say like you'll need
about
a teaspoon you don't know if that's a
lot like
maybe like two pinches okay i would say
but taste it first because everyone's
yeah a little bit different i like
things to be a little bit more salty
and i don't so i would just say do a
pinch at a time
to get get it to your liking so yeah
it's just really a little bit of salt
to add flavor to the rice so yeah just
mix it
up so you got the salt evenly around all
the rice
and then you're just going to make these
in a strips so i'm going to
cut this in half
put them on the plate over here and what
i like to do
is take the saran wrap put the rice
in the saran wrap and this way too
rice doesn't stick to your hands um so
they get messy
and then i just kind of wrap it up
and then make a triangle shape out of it
now it's not going to be as perfect as
candies because she's got that device
but you know i think you can get it kind
of close and then you just like wrap
the seaweed around it and that's it
super simple so you can also put
little ingredients in the middle of
these rice balls so if you're going to
do that
then i would take a little bit of rice
first then put your little ingredient
like a um
washi or you could put salmon or you can
also put
tuna dried fish flakes anything in the
middle and then once you put that in the
middle
then you put another layer of rice on
top
and then again you wrap it up and then
make your
triangle and place it
and you can put less seaweed if you want
yeah
it's this is a little bit overboard i
think personal preference
it's been marinated now for about i want
to say 20 minutes
and the next step is to drain
the soy sauce mixture
all right so now that we have the
chicken
uh drained then we're gonna put wanna
put in corn starch
and i like to do this in separate
batches
so i can get more of that cornstarch
just make sure
all these chicken pieces get their own
cornstarch covering and just kind of mix
it up
and you're going to have cornstarch all
over
[Music]
a little bit more it doesn't have to be
like completely covered in cornstarch
but
at least a good portion of it i am now
putting oil in a pot
you want to cook it on high and don't
forget to turn on your fan
before i put in the first batch of
chicken i just want to make sure the oil
is hot enough so i'll just take a little
bit of the batter
and i'll put it in there and if it rises
the top really fast like that that means
it's ready
about three to five minutes the karage
should be ready then make sure you just
check one of them
to see if it's all cooked through
[Music]
yeah that's nicely cooked all right so
we are done with our meal and we put on
a plate so we can make it look nice
that's not how we take it on the
trip we usually put it in a um
tupperware
we wrap up the onigiri's or the rice
balls and
saran wrap so now you can have your
japanese road trip food
whenever you go somewhere i hope you
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thanks for watching bye
you