SPAM (or luncheon meat) onigiri is a popular snack in Okinawa. In recent years, however, you can find this onigiri in almost all convenience stores in Japan. Generally luncheon meat
contains a large amount of salt, so I recommend that you boil it in water before eating. Both teriyaki sauce and tonkatsu sauce go really well with this onigiri. I have included a simple and quick teriyaki sauce with this recipe. You can use this sauce when sautéing chicken, fish and fermented soy beans (tempeh).
Ingredients
- 4¼ (100–120 g) Luncheon meat, cut into 4 slices, about 1-cm (½-in) thick, then cut into your preferred shape
- 17 oz (480 g) Cooked Japanese short grain rice
- ½ tsp Freshly grounded black pepper
- Nori seaweed sheets 4, cut into 2 x 10-cm (1 x 4-in) strips
- White radish (daikon) sprouts to garnish
Teriyaki sauce
- 4 tbsp Japanese soy sauce (shoyu)
- 4 tbsp Sugar
- 3 tbsp Sake
How to Make It
- Mix all the ingredients for teriyaki sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Bring some water to the boil in a frying pan and cook luncheon meat for 2 minutes to get rid of saltiness in the luncheon meat. Discard water and pan-fry luncheon meat without adding oil until brown on both sides.
- Pour teriyaki sauce over luncheon meat and cook until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Wet your hands and take one-eighth of the rice and shape to match with luncheon meat shape.
- Place 1 piece of luncheon meat on top of the rice. Wrap rice and luncheon meat with a strip of nori to form a bundle. Garnish with white radish sprouts. Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
