Crispy krill, dried scallops, crab fat and pork jowl tossed with jasmine rice, eggs and vegetables for an intensely savoury fried rice. Sometimes the most interesting recipes begin with buying something you have absolutely no plan for. Tiny crustaceans fried until crunchy meet intensely savoury shellfish, rich aligue and caramelised pork jowl in one seriously umami-packed wok. My first experiment with this unusual ingredient definitely won’t be my last.
Trips to the Asian grocery can be dangerous for me because I have a habit of buying ingredients before I actually know what I am going to do with them. If I see something interesting, particularly something I haven’t cooked with before, curiosity usually wins. I bring it home and figure out the recipe later.
That is exactly how this Crispy Krill, Dried Scallop and Crab Fat Fried Rice started.
I found a packet of frozen krill at our Asian grocery, and naturally I bought it. The problem came afterwards when I had to figure out exactly how I wanted to use it. Krill aren’t something I regularly cook with, so this was going to be my first crack at turning them into a proper dish.
Looking at these tiny crustaceans, fried rice immediately started making sense. Rather than making krill the only flavour, I decided to build an entire seafood-heavy fried rice around them. Dried scallops would provide deep umami, crab fat would coat the rice with its rich seafood flavour, and because apparently there still wasn’t enough richness happening, I added pork jowl as well.
The result is certainly not your everyday fried rice.
What Exactly Are Krill?
Krill look like miniature shrimp, and at first glance you could easily assume that’s exactly what they are. They are actually small crustaceans belonging to the order Euphausiacea and occupy an incredibly important place in marine ecosystems.
They feed largely on microscopic organisms such as phytoplankton, while countless larger animals depend on them for food. Fish, seabirds, seals and, most famously, some of the world’s largest whales consume enormous quantities of krill.
For something so small, they play a massive role in the ocean.
As a human food ingredient, however, krill remain considerably less familiar than prawns or shrimp. This was precisely why I became curious when I spotted that frozen packet.
Asian cuisines certainly aren’t strangers to tiny crustaceans. Small shrimp and similar seafood appear dried, fermented, fried and incorporated into sauces and condiments throughout coastal Asian cooking. Filipinos should immediately understand this because we have everything from alamang to dried tiny shrimp.
With krill being so small, peeling them individually obviously isn’t the point. You cook and eat them whole.
That gave me an idea.
Make them crispy.
Crispy Krill Gives the Rice Its Personality
I didn’t want the krill simply disappearing into the rice.
I wanted to know they were there.
By frying them separately until crisp, their seafood flavour becomes more concentrated while their texture changes completely. Instead of soft little crustaceans disappearing amongst the rice grains, you get these tiny crunchy morsels scattered throughout.
I also reserve some of the fried krill for the top.
That turned out to be important because fried rice usually isn’t a particularly dramatic-looking dish. Piling crispy krill over it immediately tells you this isn’t ordinary fried rice before you even taste it.
Then underneath those crispy little crustaceans are several more layers of flavour.
Dried Scallops Bring Serious Umami
Once I decided to make fried rice, I could easily have stopped with the krill.
Obviously I didn’t.
I had dried scallops, and these are one of my favourite ingredients when I want concentrated seafood flavour.
Also known as conpoy, dried scallops feature prominently in Chinese cooking. Drying dramatically changes their character. Their natural sweetness and savouriness become concentrated, producing an ingredient with considerably more intensity than fresh scallops.
They are fantastic in congee, soups, braised dishes, sauces and, of course, fried rice.
For this recipe, I soak them until tender and then pull them apart into fine strands. Rather than encountering large pieces of scallop, you get little fibres distributed throughout the rice.
That means their flavour appears almost everywhere without dominating individual mouthfuls.
I even keep some of their soaking liquid because throwing that away would be criminal. There is plenty of flavour in there, so a splash can go into the wok if the rice needs moisture.
Then There Is the Crab Fat
This is where things become seriously rich.
Crab fat, or aligue as we Filipinos commonly know it, has an incredibly concentrated shellfish flavour. What gets called crab fat isn’t necessarily fat in the same sense as pork or beef fat. Depending on the crab and how it has been processed, that rich orange or yellow material may contain hepatopancreas and roe.
Whatever terminology you prefer, one thing is certain.
It tastes amazing with rice.
Filipinos already know this from aligue rice. Even a relatively small quantity can transform plain rice into something rich, savoury and unmistakably crabby.
That same principle works here.
Once the crab fat hits the hot rice, it begins coating individual grains and gives everything that gorgeous orange colour. More importantly, its flavour spreads throughout the entire wok.
Pork and seafood combinations make perfect sense in Asian cooking. Pork brings a completely different type of savouriness and, particularly when you use a fatty cut, provides richness that complements shellfish exceptionally well.
Pork jowl is ideal.
Cut into small pieces and fried in the wok, its edges begin to caramelise while some of the fat renders out.
And I’m definitely not throwing that fat away.
It becomes part of the cooking medium for the rest of the fried rice.
The pork jowl also gives the finished dish another textural dimension. Without it, almost every major flavour would come from seafood. Those little pieces of browned pork interrupt the marine intensity with something meaty, fatty and slightly chewy.
Suddenly there is a lot happening in every spoonful.
Fried Rice Is Perfect for Experiments Like This
This is one of the reasons I love fried rice.
It gives you tremendous freedom to experiment, yet it is brutally honest about whether your idea actually works.
You can throw plenty of things into a wok, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they belong together.
Here, they do.
Rice gives these intensely flavoured ingredients somewhere to go. Eating crab fat alone would quickly become overwhelming. Dried scallops have enormous umami. Krill bring their own concentrated seafood character.
Spread those ingredients throughout four cups of rice and the intensity becomes much more balanced.
Egg softens everything. Peas add sweetness. Carrots provide another fresh element, while garlic and spring onions bring the familiar aromatics that make the whole thing feel recognisably like fried rice.
Even with all those unusual ingredients, the basic structure remains familiar.
Freshly steamed rice contains too much moisture. Throw it straight into a wok and you risk ending up with clumps or something closer to steamed rice coated in sauce.
Refrigerating cooked rice allows some moisture to evaporate while the grains firm up.
For something this rich, that’s particularly important.
I don’t want a heavy mass of rice saturated with crab fat. I want individual grains coated lightly with it, with bits of pork, scallop, egg and krill distributed throughout.
A properly hot wok helps enormously too.
Cook the components in stages. Crisp the krill first and remove them. Render and brown the pork jowl. Build your aromatics and scallop base. Cook the egg, then finally bring everything together with the rice.
It takes a little more effort than throwing everything into the wok simultaneously, but the textures are much better.
My First Crack at Cooking Frozen Krill
For something that started with me standing in an Asian grocery looking at a packet of frozen krill and wondering what on earth I could make from it, I think this was a pretty good first attempt. It certainly isn’t subtle.
Crispy Krill, Dried Scallop and Crab Fat Fried Rice is unapologetically savoury. You get the marine intensity of krill, concentrated umami from dried scallops, richness from crab fat and wonderful little pieces of caramelised pork jowl scattered throughout.
Then you get those crispy krill piled over the top.
That might be my favourite part because every spoonful containing some of those crunchy little crustaceans tastes slightly different from the one before it.
And perhaps that’s the best part of buying unfamiliar ingredients without a plan.
Sometimes they sit in your freezer for weeks while you wonder why you bought them.
Sometimes they lead you somewhere completely unexpected.
In this case, that frozen packet became one of the more interesting fried rice combinations I have made.
Now that I know what krill can do, this definitely won’t be my last crack at using them.
Place the dried scallops in a small bowl and cover with hot water. Leave them to soak for at least 30 minutes or until softened. Drain, reserving several tablespoons of the soaking liquid, then shred the scallops finely with your fingers.
Pat the thawed krill as dry as possible with kitchen paper. Removing as much moisture as you can is important because you want them to fry and become crisp rather than steam.
Heat a wok over medium-high heat and add enough cooking oil to lightly coat the surface. Add the krill and fry, stirring frequently, until their moisture evaporates and they become golden and crispy.
Remove the krill from the wok and set aside. Reserve roughly one third separately for garnishing the finished fried rice.
Return the wok to medium-high heat. Add the pork jowl and cook until the pieces become golden brown around the edges and begin releasing their fat.
Add the shredded dried scallops and stir-fry with the pork jowl for about one minute.
Add the garlic and white parts of the spring onions, then stir-fry briefly until fragrant.
Push everything towards one side of the wok. Pour the beaten eggs into the empty side and leave them for several seconds before gently scrambling them into soft pieces. Mix the eggs through the pork and scallops.
Increase the heat to high. Add the cold jasmine rice, breaking apart any clumps with a wok spatula. Toss continuously until the grains separate and become thoroughly heated.
Add the crab fat and continue tossing until it melts through the rice and evenly coats the grains. The rice should gradually take on a rich orange colour.
Add the carrot, peas, light soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, fish sauce and white pepper.
If the rice feels particularly dry, add one or two tablespoons of the reserved scallop soaking liquid rather than adding additional oil.
Return two thirds of the crispy krill to the wok and toss everything together thoroughly over high heat.
Taste before adding any salt. The dried scallops, crab fat, soy sauce and fish sauce already contribute plenty of salinity, so you may not need much additional seasoning.
Add most of the green spring onions and the sliced red chilli, if using. Toss briefly, then remove the wok from the heat.
Transfer the fried rice to a large serving bowl and generously scatter the reserved crispy krill and remaining spring onions over the top.
Serve immediately while the rice is piping hot and, most importantly, those krill are still beautifully crisp
Well, it has been suggested I use krill oil amongst my vitamin/mineral choices . . . that has been my total knowledge of the word . . . have never met dried scallops or crab fat or even shaken hands with pork jowl . . . but your dish does look appetizing . . . my closest Asian grocery is 40kms away . . . but I am very used to going online :) ! Homework needed as ‘different’ is a word I do like!
Great job figuring out how to use those krill! I’m not sure crab fat is a common ingredient here, but now I need to go looking – we love fried rice, and I bet it adds so much flavor!!
Well, it has been suggested I use krill oil amongst my vitamin/mineral choices . . . that has been my total knowledge of the word . . . have never met dried scallops or crab fat or even shaken hands with pork jowl . . . but your dish does look appetizing . . . my closest Asian grocery is 40kms away . . . but I am very used to going online :) ! Homework needed as ‘different’ is a word I do like!
Ohh a lot of unusual ingredients for you
Can I just have scallops and krill? Crab fat is new to me.
Fascinating! I’ve never had krill, but I would have bought them also! A great combination of ingredients!!!
Great job figuring out how to use those krill! I’m not sure crab fat is a common ingredient here, but now I need to go looking – we love fried rice, and I bet it adds so much flavor!!