My Okinawan Grandma's Spam & Egg Onigiri (Rice Balls)

Name: My Okinawan Grandma's Spam & Egg Onigiri (Rice Balls)
Total time: 1200 s
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 700 grams or 4 servings plain, cooked rice; 1/2 can Spam; 2 Eggs, beaten; 2 sheets nori seaweed; Mayonnaise, optional

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

This is soul food that I've been eating since I was a child. I decided to upload this recipe because ever since I've moved to mainland Japan, it's been a great hit at parties and for our Sport's Day bentos. By the way, we call canned meat like Spam "pork" in Okinawa.

You can buy a "Hormel Spam Musubi Maker" online on sites like Amazon, though these were of course made as onigiri rice balls originally. There's a version that uses an oil miso paste called "Andansu" too. Makes 2 rolls which are cut into 4 onigiri in total. (Recipe by Harmony Forest)

cookpad.japan @cookpad_jp

Saved

Ingredients

20 mins

4 servings

700 gramsor 4 servings plain, cooked rice
1/2 canSpam
2Eggs, beaten
2 sheetsnori seaweed
Mayonnaise, optional

Saved

Steps

20 mins

1

First, prepare the fillings. Cut the Spam into 4 slices. In Okinawa, there are may different brands of canned "pork" that are available like Tulip.
2

Fry the slices of Spam on both sides using a generous amount of oil.
3

After cooking the spam, cook thin "omelettes" (or more like crepes) using the remaining oil in the pan. The salt from the Spam will season the egg so you won't need to add any salt.
4

I am using the "Homel Spam Musubi Maker" for this recipe. Place the musubi maker on top of the seaweed and add a thin layer of rice.
5

It's a little difficult to shape the rice without the musubi maker, but you can still make it in a rice ball style: simply spread out rice across the center of the nori sheet, leaving plenty of space on each side to fold over at the end.
6

Next, place a layer of Spam and mayonnaise on top of the rice (without mayonnaise is ok too).
7

Lay the cooked egg on top.
8

Add another layer of rice on top of everything and press down.
9

Remove the musubi maker mold, if using, then wrap the edges of the nori seaweed around the layers of rice and spam.
10

Mixing in some fresh ground pepper in the rice gives it a nice extra taste!