Inari pouches

One of my favourite go to snacks in Japan is Inari pouches filled with seasoned rice and they make a great bento lunch to make at home .

Inari is named after the Shinto god of farming fertility success and prosperity.  When you visit a Inari shrine you will find lots of statues of foxes ( kitsune ) these are the spirits ( kami ) of the shrine and it is believed they are rather partial to these little fried pockets of stuffed tofu. People often take Inari as offerings to these shrines .

The easiest way to make these is to buy some already prepared seasoned Inari pockets ( I buy mine from the Japan centre in London ) but most Asian super markets have these or you can get them on line .

They come in two packets of 8 pieces and they are seasoned with mirin and soy sauce . When I get mine I like to take them out the packaging and rice them with water to get off any oil and then pat dry with kitchen paper .

prepare some Japanese rice in your rice cooker and when done add some sushi seasoning to the rice . ( I use one by Clearspring )

These ones I then mixed in some cooked sweetcorn but you can add what ever you like or just have toppings instead .

Part your pockets carefully and spoon in your rice . I then topped these ones with some simple watercress and a scatter of black sesame seeds.

Other topping ideas could be

shiitake , pickled ginger, avocado, hijiki , edamame, furikake

Its as simple as that . Have fun .