I have been wanting to try this Spicy Shrimp Salad with Crispy Rice recipe forever. It comes from the Cooking with Cocktail Rings website. I have seen a few of her videos and the variations of crispy rice dishes all look so appealing. Sort of like sushi with a crunch. This recipe doesn’t use any raw seafood though, just cooked shrimp. There is a raw tuna version I cannot wait to try! If you enjoy california rolls, spicy tuna rolls, or shrimp tempura rolls, this tastes a lot like those. We loved it!
You have to cook and cool and refrigerate the rice for this dish, in order to fry it and get it crispy so plan ahead. The rice could also be made a day ahead of time. See my post on perfectly cooking asian rice on the stove top here.
The shrimp salad is made with chopped cooked shrimp, scallions, breadcrumbs, mayo (preferably kewpie mayo), sriracha, jalapeno and soy sauce. Kewpie mayo is a Japanese mayo that is made with egg yolks. It is very smooth and rich and tasty. Regular mayo works here too, but I love the texture of kewpie.
For serving this dish, the rice is packed tightly and fried to give it a crispy texture. It is topped with avocado, the shrimp salad, jalapeno, cilantro, and a drizzle of eel sauce. Eel sauce isn’t made with eels, it is a sweet and savory sauced used in sushi bars to top a lot of sushi. It is delicious and really makes this dish complete.
You can adjust the heat of this dish by using less jalapenos and sriracha if spicy food isn’t your thing.
Spicy Shrimp Salad with Crispy Rice
Ingredients
For the crispy rice:
- 4 cups cooked short grain rice sprinkled with 3 tsp of mirin
- oil for frying
For the shrimp salad:
- 3/4 lb large (21-30 count) shrimp peeled and deveined, tails removed
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1/4 cup diced scallions
- 1/4 cup panko flakes
- 3 tbsp mayo
- 2 tbsp sriracha
- 1 tbsp diced jalapeno
- 1 tsp soy sauce
To serve:
- 1 avocado sliced thinly
- 1 jalapeno sliced thinly
- 2 tbsp eel sauce
- soy sauce for dipping
Instructions
For the rice:
- Sprinkled cooked rice with mirin and line an 8×8 pan with plastic wrap then press the rice into the pan to tighly pack it. Wrap and refrigerate at least an hour.
- Remove rice from the pan and cut into about 12 even squares.
- Heat a bit of oil in a skillet until it is about 375 degrees and cook a few squares at a time of rice, rotating them until they are browned on all sides. 3-4 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Cut each square in half.
For the shrimp:
- Heat a frying pan over medium and add the oil. When it is hot, add the shrimp and season lightly with salt. Cook until pink and no longer translucent, flipping occasionally. When the shrimp is fully cooked, move to a cutting board and allow to cool a bit before chopping it.
- Finely chop the shrimp and add to a bowl with the mayo, scallions, breadcrumbs, sriracha, jalapeno and soy. Stir to mix.
To serve:
- Top each square of crispy rice with a slice of avocado, shrimp salad, a slice of jalapeno and drizzle with eel sauce. Serve with soy for dipping.