I had this dish in Denver. The bar tended to sell mexican food, but I am not sure if this is specifically a mexican dish.

The actual meal itself (onion, coconut etc) I am not looking for specifically. I haven’t been able to find a recipe where crispy rice in general is made in a cast iron pan.

The bottom and sides were crispy, and the middle was very creamy rice. Does anyone have a recipe or suggestions?

  • xmunk
    3·
    3 hours ago

    Cast iron is excellent for delivering a lot of consistent heat - I use it for searing steaks and greatly prefer it to a grill.

    If you want to make it extremely crispy you’ll want to make sure the precooked rice is relatively dry (instead of 1 cup to 1.75 or 1.5 cups of water use 1.25 or 1 - make sure the rice is still edibly hydrated as some rice variants take different water ratios).

    It’s possible incorporating sugar into the rice (i.e. coconut milk instead of water) will help it crisp faster but with the approach I’ll suggest below there’s a danger of burning the sugar which will end up tasting like shit - you may want to reserve coconut milk to partway through the process.

    With your rice and stuff for the middle prepared (the middle can be whatever you want like (maybe start with a recipe for a Thai/Indian curry? Or some mix of poblanos, cheese, and meat/beans for more Mexican flavors?)) Mix some rice into the middle for consistency and set both aside and prepare your pan. Everything in this middle mixture should be pre-cooked and food safe, if you have meat make sure it has been cooked to a safe temperature.

    You should set your stove to high and place your cast iron pan on it to warm for a few minutes, how long will depend on your cook surface but put some oil into the pan and wait until it’s shimmering/wicked fucking hot - consider using an oil with a high smoke point. Keep an oven mit in reach to manipulate the pan.

    Once it’s piping fucking hot pour in the rice that’s still separate and use cookware (metal or wooden- not plastic - maybe silicon if you really trust it’s an actual heat resistant silicon) and press it into the pan including up the edges - once that’s done drizzle oil around the edge of the pan so that those edges have extra help crisping up. Do not touch, do not stir, do not disturb but do watch it like a hawk.

    Once it starts to fry a bit short of your desired firmity pour in the middle and let the mixture cook through. If it’s too moist you can always transfer it to the oven to dry out but you’re essentially just warming the central mixture and trying to get that yummy flavor to soak into the crispy layer.

    It’s always fun to improvise in the kitchen!