My First Mini O-Bento

I've bought some onigiri shapers from 100 yen shop for quite sometime and has been procrastinating to make some onigiris. Since the main idea is to utilize the rice shapers, I didn't make too many side dishes. I've only made some spicy chicken karaage and slice some fresh cucumbers. The pink bears are made by mixing the rice with sakura denbu, while the triangular onigiris are made with the sesame, seaweed and seasoning mixed with rice.



Japanese rice, it seems are cooked differently from the long grain rice we consume everyday, and for the keepsake, I will share the recipe here.

Japanese Rice for Sushi 
Ingredients

3 cups Japanese-style rice or short grain rice
3 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt 

Direction

1. Wash the rice until the water is no longer milky, drain and set aside. Put rice grain into the designated cooking container and add in the water. Soak for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Cook in rice cooker so that you don't need to adjust the heat.
2. To make rice for making sushi, prepare sushi vinegar by mixing rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small pan. Boil the mixture in low heat until the sugar dissolves.
3. Spread the hot steamed rice into a large plate with shamoji (rice spatula). Sprinkle the vinegar mixture over the rice and fold the rice by shamoji very quickly. Be careful not to smash the rice. While mixing, fan the rise so that the moisture is reduced, and hence gives the rice a shiny look.
4. After the rice is prepared, just used them in the Japanese cooking that requires them.