Stage 1 – Cook Onigiri Rice

1. Take your rice and water, and either cook it in a rice-cooker for ~15 minutes, or bring it to a quick boil then a ~15 minute simmer in a small pot
2. After ~15 minutes, take your cooked rice and lay flat on a baking dish lined with parchment paper
3. Melt the sugar in the rice wine vinegar in small saucepan.
4. With a small spoon, sprinkle your rice wine vinegar and sugar concotion over all of your rice. Set it aside and cook your filling

Stage 2 – Cook Onigiri Filling

1. In a small bowl, mix your soy sauce, honey, water, garlic powder and ginger powder together to create a quick teriyaki-style dressing
2. Heat a saucepan over medium-high heat with a dash of oil. With the oil hot, add your salmon and begin to sear
3. After a minute of initial searing, pour in your teriyaki sauce over the salmon, and mix around to integrate the sauce into the salmon
4. Begin flaking your salmon filet, then remove from the saucepan and set aside
5. In the same saucepan, heat a dash of oil and add your gobo root, carrot and chili pepper
6. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the gobo root begins to soften, then remove your saucepan from the heat and mix your gobo root and flaked salmon together

Stage 3 – Prepare the Onigiri

1. With your filling made, start making your onigiri by taking a handful of your rice in the palm of your hand. To keep the rice from sticking to your hand, wet your hands with water first
2. Create a small pocket in your rice, and spoon some of your filling into the pocket
3. Close your rice around the filling to create your rice ball. If you’d like, you can shape your onigiri into any type of shape you want (i.e. square, triangle, etc)
4. Cut a piece of your roasted seaweed, and wrap it around your onigiri. It can be as much seaweed as to cover all the rice, or it can be as little as a strip of seaweed around. It’s completely up to you
5. Set it aside, and continue making as many onigiri as your ingredients will allow. Then enjoy!