Crispy Ketchup Rice Is Your New Favorite Way To Use Up Leftovers
Ah, rice. It's the gift that just keeps giving. From serving as the perfect base for any vegetable or meat dish or cooling down a spicy curry to acting as a delicious meal on its own via any version of the infinitely customizable fried rice, the starchy grain is considered a pantry must-have for a reason. If you often find yourself with leftover rice, consider trying this new recipe.
Carolina Gelen's crispy ketchup rice comes from her cookbook "Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes." It takes the Japanese flavors from omurice, a dish that's essentially a fried rice omelette topped with ketchup, and modifies them into something even easier. In a video posted on the recipe developer's Instagram, day-old, slightly sticky rice is mixed with ketchup and a few seasonings before being fried to a crisp on both sides in a hot skillet to build a satisfyingly caramelized exterior. It's then topped with a runny over-easy egg. It's a fridge cleanout and your new favorite lunch, all in one.
Tips for making crispy ketchup rice
Gelen suggests seasoning the rice with garlic powder, hot sauce, and salt, but you could also add soy sauce for an extra tang or drizzle chili crisp or gochujang on top as your secret ingredient for extra spice. Once it's in your buttered-up pan, resist the urge to stir the ketchup-coated rice, instead letting it sit to form a single caramelized layer. Flip and repeat on the other side, and you've got the basics down.
To dress up the dish with some added protein or just to make it look like you spent more than five minutes putting it together, try serving your crispy ketchup rice with gyoza, potstickers, or dumplings. You can also serve it with some crispy sliced pork belly to make the meal a little more substantial, or crispy tofu or vegetables for a vegetarian-friendly version. Feel free to experiment and improve — that's the most fun part of cooking!