toasty onigiri bento

Just recently I ordered a bag of biodynamic brown rice from Queensland.  The rice is called rain-fed, meaning cultivated in a way that uses rainfall rather than irrigation to grow.  It is the best brown rice I have ever tasted!  After years of not enjoying brown rice, now I love it again.  And because it’s short grain rice, it makes perfect onigiri!  

My favourite onigiri of the moment is a simple one, pan grilled brown rice ball with some soy sauce to give it a toasty glaze.  This is a dinner bento I made for the night of my weekly writing group; a simple bento with chicken cutlet with barbecue sauce, chopped salad (you can’t see it underneath the garnish!), Japanese mayonnaise.  I uploaded my Japanese mayonnaise method for Thermomix here.  Japanese mayonnaise is the best, I crave it sometimes.  Funny because I’m not a fan of mayonnaise normally.  I guess I find it kind of bland, but Japanese mayo is full of flavour.  Especially homemade!  However, if you don’t have a Thermomix that recipe would also work with a stick blender or food processor.  Did you notice the mizuna garnish?  It’s from my garden…so nice to step outside the into the rain drenched garden and pick a fresh baran to go in my bento!