Tenmusu (Shrimp Tempura Rice Ball)

Crispy fried shrimp tempura seasoned in a sweet tsuyu sauce wrapped in sushi rice and crispy nori. This easy tenmusu is a delicious Japanese rice ball made with simple ingredients in 30 minutes! A great meal, appetizer, snack for tempura-lovers!

Tenmusu (or "ten-musu") is a Japanese rice ball that contains shrimp tempura and wrapped with dry roasted seaweed or nori. The deep fried shrimp is battered and flavored with a sweet and savory tsuyu sauce.

These serve well as a handheld portable snack or as a light meal making them great for lunchboxes or picnic food. They're sold in Japan as street food or at select Japanese restaurants.

They're absolutely delicious and are similar to Tuna Onigiri! The best part is that they're easy to make at home and a great way to add seafood to your diet.

I created this recipe when I learned about this Japanese food through the realms of YouTube! I love watching Japanese street food videos and saw an onigiri restaurant serve this, so I had to make my own version to share on the blog!

Ingredients & Substitutes

Please scroll down to below recipe card for exact measurements. 

• Jumbo Shrimp: get the easy peel deveined kind to make it easier on you! I like using the black tiger breed but use any large jumbo sized shrimp like Pacific white.
• Nori: these are sheets of edible dry roasted seaweed. Most Asian grocery stores will sell this.
• Neutral oil: any flavorless oil like avocado oil, peanut oil, grapeseed oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a high smoke point. Avoid olive oil or coconut oil due to its heavier scent. 

For the Rice

• Cooked Short-Grain Rice (aka sushi rice / Calrose rice): it's important to use short-grain rice so the rice ball can stick together. Or substitute with medium grain rice but add ¼ cup more water when steaming it to make it stickier. Avoid using long grain rice or glutinous rice.
• Salt: to season the rice.

Tempura Batter

• Potato starch: or substitute with cornstarch or tapioca starch.
• Cake flour: this is a soft wheat flour that is low in protein creating a softer texture. Or substitute with all-purpose flour and displace a portion of it with cornstarch, but please see Recipe card for further instructions.
• Salt
• Cold water: ideally ice cold water that has been melted to make the batter fluffy and crispy.

Dipping Sauce

• Tsuyu: this is a Japanese sauce that is a concentrated soup base made of soy sauce, rice wine, sake, bonito flakes and kombu. Most Japanese or Asian grocery stores will sell this ingredient. Or you can even make your own by referring to online recipes.
• Cold Water: to dilute the tsuyu sauce.

Note: Most Asian grocery stores will carry most of the Asian specific ingredients or check online stores, like Amazon. 

Instructions

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make tenmusu:

1. Season hot cooked short-grain rice with 1 teaspoon salt. Allow this to cool down but keep it covered to prevent the rice from drying out. Set aside.

2. First peel deveined shrimp leaving the tails on. Then pat dry the shrimp with paper towel to remove excess moisture.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the tempura batter ingredients as listed above until smooth and runny. Then mix shrimp into the batter ensuring it's fully coated.

4. In a large heavy bottomed pan, heat vegetable oil on medium high heat until you reach 350 degrees F with a digital instant read cooking thermometer or insert a wooden utensil and look for rapid bubbles. Fry battered shrimp in small batches, about 3-4 pieces per batch. ​Drizzle 2 teaspoon of excess batter on top of each piece of shrimp, flip it over and let this fry for 1 minute or until crispy. Then drizzle another 2 teaspoon of batter, flip over and fry for another 1 minute or until it's crispy.

5. Remove with tongs or a slotted spoon and transfer to a wire rack or paper towel baking sheet to allow excess oil to drip off. 

6. On a clean working surface, spread out a large sheet of plastic wrap. Measure ½ cup of the seasoned rice and place it into the center of the plastic wrap. Wrap the rice into a ball and shape it into a triangle.

7. Poke a hole at the top of the triangular shaped rice ball with your thumb. Set aside.

8. In a small bowl, combine Tsuyu soup concentrate and cold water to make the sauce. Dip one shrimp tempura into the sauce.

Assembling Rice Ball

9. Insert the seasoned shrimp tail side up into the hole of the rice ball. The rice will break apart here which is normal, so cover the ball with the plastic wrap and shape it back into a triangle.

10. Remove the rice ball from the plastic wrap and wrap it with a strip of nori around the rice part. Repeat this until you have 7 more rice balls. Enjoy!

FAQ