comment icon 96 more comments First of all, there’s papery thin vegetables (cucumber! shallot!) and a whole lot of herbs (mint! cilantro! add more, more, more!). And secondly, there’s a beautiful pile of clumpy fried golden red curry jasmine rice – it’s crisped and golden on the outside, but soft and carby enough on the insides to still absorb some of the limey, garlicky, salty vinaigrette with all the flavor. OOF I am drooling just thinking about it. I can throw some crushed peanuts at this thing and be fully and absolutely happy without any other protein. But if you are the kind of person who wants to get some bonus protein up in the mix (you know what I’m going to say!) I’d recommend the air fryer chicken or the air fryer salmon here. We’ve done both; they’re both great. This salad is a riff on Nam Khao which is a Laotian appetizer-style salad where the rice is fried into balls with fermented sausage, broken apart, and then eaten on a platter with lettuce cups. I tried a version of this at Hai Hai about a year ago and honestly have been thinking about trying to make it ever since. It was SO good. Then (it was fate!) Molly Yeh recently posted a video about making crispy rice in the air fryer! Genius. And this is how we ended up here, with a brand new salad obsession just in time for Summer 2024. 4.9 from 37 reviews
a 1/2-inch knob of fresh ginger, or a spoonful of ginger paste (note 1) 1 clove garlic 1/4 cup fish sauce 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons avocado oil, or another neutral oil 1/4 cup lime juice (3-4 small limes) 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon chili crisp (more for spicier)
Crispy Rice Salad:
2 cups cooked jasmine rice (note 2) 2 tablespoons avocado oil 2 teaspoons red curry paste 2 teaspoons cornstarch (optional) half an English cucumber, thinly sliced (about 1 cup) 1 shallot, thinly sliced or minced (about 1/4 cup) 1 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped (about 1/2 cup) 1 bunch mint, roughly chopped or torn (about 1/4 cup) 1/2 cup chopped peanuts chili crisp to taste
Note 2 on Cooking the Rice: Most crispy rice recipes call for day-old cooked rice. Maybe I’m just lazy, but honestly, I have not found this to be necessary. I cook the rice in the Instant Pot with this method – for this I do 2 cups of rinsed jasmine rice to 2 1/2 cups water, cooked for 3 minutes at high pressure and rested for a 15 minute natural pressure release. I often just make this, fry up a batch for the same-day salad, and then keep the rest in the fridge for another salad later in the week. Note 3a on Oven Method: If you don’t have an air fryer, I would recommend “frying” the rice in the oven. Bake it at 425 degrees for about 8-10 minutes near the top of the oven (closer to the heating element). It’ll get crispy on the outside, but stay chewy on the inside. Note 3b on Skillet Frying: You can fry this rice in oil in a skillet, but it’s not my favorite because a) it’s messy, and b) it requires your rice to be much drier to begin with in order to get it crisped up. You’ll want to use day-old rice, and then fry it in about 1/4 cup of neutral oil until it’s golden and crispy. Some recipes even recommend drying the rice out in the oven to ensure that the rice is dry enough to fry well, which, for me, is a dealbreaker. Too many steps. LOL. Another consideration: your finished rice will likely be more oily than the other two methods so you may find that you don’t need as much of the dressing.
Three More Perfect Grain Salads
