Salt Bae took the internet by storm by liberally (and sassily) sprinkling salt onto a giant hunk of delicious, sizzling meat. It only makes sense that this incredibly over-the-top cultural icon would make its way into one of the most over-the-top anime out this season (I mean, have you HEARD Asta speak?). In any case, because Salt Bae is so classic, I wanted to immortalize Anime Salt Bae’s special recipe here for our consumption.
As the episode goes, the gang runs into a head chef who is busy cooking his best dish. Though enemy forces are invading, he decides not to leave in the interest of cooking his dish to completion. As he would argue, nothing comes before cooking a perfect meal. Charmy pops in and insists on trying his famous dish, inspiring him to carry on cooking. He goes back to his giant wok and sprinkles seasoning in, a la Salt Bae.
The sprinkling technique, though it looks very excessive, is actually a good way to make sure you are evenly seasoning food. By sprinkling seasoning from on high, you give it a greater opportunity to spread out in the air before hitting the food. The further it spreads, the more evenly you season. There, now you have a legitimate excuse to season like Salt Bae, as if you needed one in the first place. The question, at this point, is WHAT exactly is anime Salt Bae seasoning?
He has a large wok, and appears to be tossing a rice concoction that is rife with shrimp, peas, and egg. It looks to me like a classic shrimp fried rice, so that’s the recipe I chose to go with today. The recipe is incredibly versatile – you can add pretty much anything you want to it to achieve great flavor, but you can also keep it simple. I’ve put a basic recipe down below, but of course feel free to tailor it to your desires as you see fit.
A few fried rice secrets – if you have a gas stove, cook with a wok to achieve the wonderful smokey oil flavor possible only through wok cooking. A flat bottom wok works as well as a traditional one if you don’t have a range that will accommodate the round bottom of a traditional wok. If you have an electric stove like me… womp womp. It’s harder to achieve the smokey flavor synonymous with good fried rice, simply because it’s much more difficult to heat the sides of the pan and to create a truly hot surface all around the rice. Stick with a pan that is wide and deep to accommodate the tossing of the rice. Furthermore, cook with cooked & cooled medium- to long-grain rice, or rice that has been cooked the day before. You don’t want to cook with fresh rice, or it will get mushy in the pan as you stir it, making for an unpleasant dish. Instead, you want rice that has had some of the surface moisture evaporated out of it, leaving a rice that will be easily coated with oil and won’t continue to exude starch as you toss it.
Anime Salt Bae knew what he was doing here – this dish is a little sweet from the onion, has the perfect tang from the soy sauce, and is well seasoned thanks to that traditional Salt Bae seasoning move. It’s great to feed to a crowd, just make sure not to overcrowd your own pan – you want to give the rice room to fry up and absorb those delicious flavors you’re showering the dish with.
I really hope you can try this out! Watch the video below to get more pointers on how exactly to make this dish!
Ingredients for Anime Salt Bae’s Fried Rice
Canola Oil
1 Yellow Onion, chopped
4 eggs, scrambled
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1 lb baby shrimp, cooked
1 cup frozen peas
4 cups cooked & cooled rice
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
Salt
Pepper
Green ends of green onion, for garnish
To Make Salt Bae’s Fried Rice
*Note: If you have a gas range, cook using a wok, either flat-bottom or traditional. If cooking with electric, you want to use a pan slightly bigger than your burner, so that you can push food to the outer edges to stay warm without it burning*
1. Prepare your ingredients. Start by sautéing the chopped onion until fragrant and translucent, about 4-5 minutes over medium high heat. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. Scramble eggs, seasoning with salt and pepper. Move to the outer edges of the pan.
3. Add onion back in, and move to the outer edges of the pan. Toss garlic in the middle, and allow to become fragrant, about 1 minute. Season all with salt and pepper.
4. Bring heat up to high. Add in the shrimp and peas. Allow to heat through.
5. Clear a space in the middle and add in sesame oil and rice.
6. Toss to combine and heat through. Season with soy sauce. Toss again to combine all ingredients and seasoning.
7. Season with salt, a la Salt Bae. Make sure to taste as you go to ensure you don’t over salt!
8. When everything is hot and sizzling, plate up and garnish with green ends of the green onion. Enjoy!
I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a Twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My Tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! 😀