In the drama, I Am Not a Robot, the female lead, Jo Ji Ah, makes rice balls for her little niece. The rice balls looked very simple to make and delicious as well. So I decided to make them as well. It started off with an online search of how to make rice balls in the first place, I decided to do the same recipe as this YouTube video I found.
Out of all the Korean Food that I ever considered this seems to be one of the easiest one to make. It looks good and so I definitely had to try to make it. And I did.
Ingredients
The search for ingredients took me longer than I hope. I was only purchasing two things. I wanted to be able to go into the store, buy them, and leave. But the search didn’t work out that way.
Rice
I was excited to cook with glutinous rice for the first time. Sadly, I have only worked with three varieties of rice: Jasmine, Basmati, and regular (I’m not exactly sure what kind it is). It was a goal of mine in previous years to find different ways to cook rice. I only still know a few: plain jasmine rice, Mexican rice, yellow rice, lemon rice, coconut rice, and now plain glutinous rice. Just imagine, there are more ways to make rice than this. It’s incredible! Also does using the rice flour count because I have at multiple times attempted to make Daifuku (and still failed–I should write about it sometime).
Glutinous rice has many names and that was part of the problem I found while searching for it. I wasn’t sure what to buy. The other names include sweet rice, Thai rice, and sticky rice. It is a rice that is grown in southeast and eastern Asia. In Thailand and Laos it is a staple. After I cooked it. I ate it plain. The rice is delicious all by itself.
The process of cooking this rice is different than other rice. It has to soak for 24 hours at the most and 4-5 hours at the least. If it is not soak, then the cooking process would take a lot longer. I soak my rice for 24 hours. I don’t like cooking things forever (I dread cooking dried beans). After the rice has soak, the rice is then place into a steamer. Typically a bamboo steamer, which can be purchased from a local Asian market, or online, or if you live in Asia down the street at the market. I had a vegetable steamer already, so I added a cloth and put the rice into the steamer. When you place the water into the steamer, you must ensure that the rice doesn’t touch the water. I cooked the rice for 20 minutes and it came out perfect.
Seaweed
I thought I wasn’t going to find the seaweed. I was going to buy seaweed chips (which are probably very similar anyways). But at the opposite side of the rice aisle was the Korean ingredients. I was able find the roasted seaweed with sesame like the person in the video above. When I got home from the store, I tasted the seaweed immediately. Seaweed is an acquired taste, but I think I’m slowly becoming accustomed to it.
The Cooking Process
Well I cooked the rice as written above in the vegetable steamer. Then I place it in a bowl, dumped all the seaweed into in. Add a pinch of sugar (about 1/4 teaspoon–I didn’t salt because the seaweed had plenty). I also add 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil ( even though the seaweed also had plenty). Then I mixed it with my hands. I didn’t have gloves, but if you have some, use them or else the rice stick to you.
Ji Ah's Rice Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice
- 1 bag of seaweed flakes mixed with sesame seed
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp of sesame oil
Instructions
- Place water in a pot to where the water doesn't touch the steamer. Add rice into steamer and cook at a medium-high until boils.
- Once boil, lower heat to medium-low and cook rice for 15-20 minutes.
- Then turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Pour into bowl; let cook 5 minutes.
- Add the rest of ingredients, mixed with gloves. And start forming into balls.
- Place balls on separate place and eat.
Notes
Afterthoughts
Delicious. I was surprised that this was so quick and easy to make and also delicious. Nobody in my home liked it, so I think I will experiment with different ingredients next time. But rice balls are definite must. Easy-to-make, easy to customized, and easy to eat.
Have You Tried Rice Balls Before?
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