Crispy Rice Squares

Recently, I saw a post on a fellow food bloggers Instagram page for crispy rice balls. Hee Jee, of White Blank Space, called the cute little triangles “onigiri” and I knew immediately that I would love them. When I was young, I traveled to Asia every summer from Taiwan to South Korea and Japan. I fell in love with rice when I was three years old! But never in all my travels do I ever remember eating crispy stuffed balls of rice. I feel so robbed! Why have I not had crispy rice balls before?!?

They looked so good, and I found myself craving the cute little packages immediately. So, I decided to use Hee Jee’s recipe to try crispy rice balls (or in my case “squares”) for the first time myself. While I think Hee Jee’s turmeric chicken salad stuffing sounds so delish, and I love all kinds of chicken salad, I have currently been trying to avoid eating meat. However, I happen to have some left over spicy shrimp salad, so I thought that would be a fair swap. I chopped up the shrimp really small so it sort of mimicked the chicken paste Hee Jee describes in her post.

I also don’t have a rice ball mold, but I remembered that I do have square cutters, so I decided that would work just fine! Then, I got to experimenting. I tried a 3-inch square, but that felt too big. So, I went down a size. After my first batch I also realized my layers of rice were too thick. I wanted more filling, which Hee Jee describes in her post, too. So in my next batch, I used a little less rice and a thicker layer of shrimp salad.

Dampening finger tips is key as it makes it possible to pack everything in tightly without everything sticking to my hands. Searing was quite easy. I worried my rice would fall apart, but it didn’t! And the rice got so nicely crisp! These treats were as good as I expected. A new favorite food of mine! Now I’m just thinking about what else I can stuff into crispy little layers of rice. I’m thinking that chicken turmeric salad would be great for my next round! Thanks, Hee Jee!

To try the recipe for yourself, visit White Blank Space and find the recipe here!