Puffed Crispy Rice Topping

Inspired by the Lao crispy rice salad, Nam Khao. Think, the crisped up rice at the bottom of a pot (iykyk), but also puffed and storable to make adding ~cronchy~ texture to salads (or whatever) just a bit easier.

Whenever I have extra rice, I lay it out to dry with the intention of making fried rice, but sometimes a combination of ADHD and life get in the way, and it ends up completely drying out…◕_◕

Not not down though because it’s now just the perfect setup for this puffed crispy rice topping. 🙂

Puffed Crispy Rice Topping

thingslinadoes

Rice krispies could never.

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Prep Time 4 days d

Cook TIme 10 minutes mins

EQUIPMENT

• Wok or pan with medium-high edges (deep enough to fry, shallow enough that you can use a mesh sieve as shown in vid)
• mesh sieve
• Paper towel lined tray / plate to drain excess oil after frying

Ingredients

  

• Cooked rice, dried out
• Vegetable oil (with high smoke point, e.g., avocado oil)
• Salt
• Optionally season with any other spices of choice

Instructions

 

Prep (Drying Rice)

• Layout leftover rice on a tray, and leave uncovered in fridge. ¹
• Over next few days, occasionally mix up rice and break up any chunks, so it dries evenly.
• When completely dry, it's ready to fry.

Frying

• Heat frying oil to ~375-400˚F ²
• Using a fine mesh sieve to hold the rice, fry in batches (aka not too much that rice can't be fully submerged in oil) until golden, puffed and crispy (2-ish minutes).³ Set aside to cool on tray/plate
  
• Season with salt to taste
  Optionally season with any other spices of choice
  
• Can be stored indefinitely in an airtight container at room temp.

  Tip: i like to store it with a silica packet (that I keep from vitamin bottled or dried food goods) to absorb moisture and preserve freshness.
  

Notes

1. If making fresh rice let cool to room temp before putting in fridge (hot rice into fridge = condensation = more likely to grow mold = not v cash money)
2. If you don’t have a thermometer – have oil on high heat, and right when it starts to smoke, turn heat down to medium / medium-high to fry
3. The rice will want to stick together as it fries. I separated them in the video using a chopstick, but it doesn’t really matter cuz you can just break up chunks to desired size when cooled after frying