About the Recipe
Halloween has become a bit of a "thing" in Japan nowadays. These Halloween mummy rice balls are great fun to make with the family and great to eat too!
Ingredients
250g / 5oz cooked Japanese rice
1 tsp salt
1 sheet of nori
1 stripe of cheddar cheese or 1 sheet of sandwich cheddar cheese
1 large straw
1 normal size of metal straw if you have
1 musubi mould
1 bowl of water
Preparation
Sprinkle the salt over the cooked rice in a bowl nd gently mix in. Set aside
Next, cut some narrow strips of nori from a nori sheet. The strips need to be about 8mm / 1/3 inch. You'll need 12 strips of nori to decorate three rice balls. Keep the rest of the nori sheet close by as you will be using this to makes your Mummy's eyeballs!
Using a fruit peeler, peel off 1 or 2 thin strips of cheddar cheese. (Alternatively, you can use a sandwich cheese square.)
Use the end of a large plastic straw to punch out 6 “eyeballs” from the cheese. Then, use the end of a chopstick to push the “eyeball” out of the straw.
Next, create 6 “pupils” for the eyes. Use a small metal straw to press down on the nori sheet to form a small circle, then use a pair or scissors to cut out the small roundel.
Dip the rice ball mould in the small bowl of water. Wetting the mould will stop the rice from sticking to the mould.
Pack the mould with rice and then use the mould lid to compress the rice into a firm shape.
Remove the lid and use your thumb to press on the bottom of the mould to push the rice ball out. If the rice ball doesn't come out, give the mould a few taps on a plate or your counter top to help it along.
Now to the fun part - the decoration. Gently wrap the nori strips like bandages around each rice ball, using 3 or 4 strips per rice ball.
Last, add 2 cheese "eyeballs" to each rice ball. Add the nori dots to create pupils in each eye.
Repeat for as you Halloween Mummy rice balls as you wish to make!