Totoro Onigiri

It was LT's first day in Primary School last Monday. I had no plans for a charaben, but I managed to finish off all my household chores for that day early in the morning. Since I still have time to spare after cooking lunch, I decided to do a fast Totoro onigiri. It's really simple to make, I took some step by step photos to show you how you can easily recreate one too. :)


This is the Totoro lunch I made for LT. I showed IT the photo later that day and he asked me to make him something too the following day, lol. I did make another foodart just for him the next day, I'll share that in tomorrow's post.


Did you notice the Totoro's sack behind him? I made that using an aburaage pouch, filled with some rice.


To make Totoro, colour one portion of your rice with grinded black sesame seeds. It's easier to mix while the rice is warm. Add a little at a time, till you get the light grey colour. That said, I'm often too impatient myself, always adding too much and ending up with a darker shade. -_-


Using clingwrap, mould rice into triangular shape for Totoro's body and ovals for his ears. Set aside his ears.


Take some white rice, place on cling wrap and mould into oval shape. Use your hands to press into the grey onigiri at where the tummy should be.


Place white oval on the grey onigiri. Wrap with cling wrap and shape it. If you want Totoro to stand up, make sure you flatten the base of the onigiri. You can do so by placing the base of Totoro on the table, and slowly use your hands to flatten and shape.

Cut out Totoro's eyes from cheese using a round cutter. You can use a big straw too, like those used for bubble tea.


These are the punchers I used for the details on Totoro. If you do not have these, you can use a pair of sharp tip scissors to cut out the details instead. Set aside Totoro first.


To make Susuwatari (the black soot), mould a ball of rice using cling wrap. Cut out a small slice of seaweed, make cuts at the corners before wrapping the rice in them. Cover with cling wrap and mould the seaweed rice, the seaweed will soften as you mould.


Cut out eyes from cheese using a round cutter.


The puncher I used for their eyes.


I used uncooked pasta to attach on Totoro's ears and Susuwatari. The pasta will soften after some time due to moisture in the rice. You can also pan-fry the pasta in a little oil, the pasta will be crispy after frying. The ones I used for Totoro's whiskers have been pan-fried.


Ta-dah, the completed Totoro. :)

Where to get same or similar items used in this post: