I love crispy rice.
I know rice with a crisp buttery bottom isn’t a new thing. I’m sure it’s been around for millenia, once a delicious mistake that is one of the best bites in the pot. It has become a fad in the last few years, showing up in Western kitchens and cookbooks more.
In the “before Boston days” when I lived alone, crispy rice was one of my delicious mistakes, long before I read about it in Salt Fat Acid Heat. I would take some leftover rice and fry it up in a non-stick pan, maybe with an egg or whatever else was lying around in the back of the fridge. It was always the perfect breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. Individual grains of rice all crisped up in butter, some creamy bits of egg, a pop of a vegetable. Mmmmm.
Samin Nosrat’s recipe for “Persian-ish Rice” reignited my love for crispy rice, now in a new form (less crispy-all-over and more crispy-in-one-layer). I immediately went for the “add lots of herbs” version (notated in her book), and on subsequent attempts have added saffron for an additional umph.
A relative was recently in town. She is celiac, and her husband eats mostly vegan. I know cooking for individuals with food restrictions can make the average cook freak out a little bit, but for me it’s a welcome challenge.
My mother-in-law was hosting the dinner, so the additional challenge was that all of the items had to be easy to transport. AND they had to go with the salmon and vegetables she was making.
I landed on Milk Street Kitchen’s Turkish Red Lentil Soup (sans butter), and a vegan version of the Persian-ish rice.
I spent the week leading up to the dinner making the rice 2 different times with vegan yogurt and olive oil. A day before the dinner, I par cooked the rice and minced the herbs (parsley, mint and dill). Before leaving the house to go to my in-laws, I mixed 1 cup of the rice with the vegan yogurt and the rest of the rice with the herbs and saffron water. When I arrived, all I had to do was crisp the rice on the stove.
Unfortunately, the rice got a little too crispy (read: slightly burned) the night of the dinner. But it was delicious none-the-less!
[and if you think I didn’t make dessert you are VASTLY MISTAKEN. Stay tuned for my report-out of my gluten-free AND vegan cookies. Surprise: they were delicious]
