Tutorial: How to make Sticky Rice like a true KON THAI (Thai person)

Sticky Rice....irreplaceable, incredible, unhealthy and delicious sticky rice. The perfect pair to Thai Laab (Thai Pork Salad) or Nam Tok (Thai Waterfall Salad) and a host of other unspeakable, ethnic wonders. And it's so easy! Read on for a sticky rice tutorial worthy of any Bangkok street vendor:

Sticky Rice and Laab (delish!)

FIRST of all, you need to buy your sticky rice. It LOOKS like regular rice, and (uncooked at least), it FEELS like regular rice, but once cooked....it takes on supernal properties unattainable by your average White or Brown Long Grain Enriched Rice.  It's also known as Glutinous Rice- so named for the "glue-like" quality sticky rice acquires when steamed. 

Clockwise, from left: Sticky Rice, White Rice, Brown Rice

Can you tell that Sticky Rice is just a bit "fatter" than ordianary rice?

 Which brings up another distinct difference; ordinary rice is cooked by boiling/simmering, whereas sticky rice is strictly steamed (you'll learn all about the authentic way to steam it in the next few paragraphs!). If your local grocery store is diverse enough, they MIGHT sell it on their shelves. Otherwise, get your year's supply all at once by picking up a 25 or 50-lb bag next time you're in an oriental food supply store. Go ahead and buy the pot and basket equipment mentioned in this post, oriental stores are pretty much the only place they are sold unless you order them online, AND THEY ARE WORTH IT!

Sorry for the blurry-ish pic, this was taken six months ago with my old not-as-amazing phone!

Preparing and cooking Sticky Rice consists of three pieces of equipment and three steps:

Equipment: Sticky Rice Steamer Pot, Sticky Rice Steamer Basket, and a lid to fit above the rice, as shown below.  The pot and basket combo are sold at oriental stores, with the pot generally being standard and the basket coming in a few different designs.  Use any old lid you have at home, just be sure that it fits snugly above the rice BUT without touching it.  An added bonus is to have the lid made of glass so you can keep an eye on the cooking process.

The POT holds the boiling water, the BASKET holds the sticky rice and the LID sits above the rice to trap the rising steam, resulting in more evenly cooked sticky rice (:

Now that you know what equipment you need, here's the steps for cooking it:

STEP 1: SOAKING RICE
STEP 2: BOILING WATER
STEP 3: STEAMING RICE

Easy much??

AAAAAAND here we go!

STEP 1: SOAKING RICE

Begin a few hours in advance by soaking the amount of sticky rice you want in warm water. It needs an hour, preferably 3-5 hours but no more than 24, to soak. The longer you soak 'em, the shorter you'll steam 'em.

Splish splash, I was takin' a bath, all about a sticky rice night

STEP 2: BOILING WATER

Once it's time to prepare dinner, fill the sticky rice steamer pot about halfway full of hot water and get it boiling on the stove. Cover with your lid to speed things up. The idea of the boiling water is that the resulting steam will be what cooks the rice, NOT the boiling water itself. SO when you put the steamer basket in, it should be at least an inch ABOVE the boiling water. Capische?  Meanwhile, your soaking step from before continues...

And we wait...

STEP 3: STEAMING RICE

Once the water is boiling, pour the soaked sticky rice into the woven steamer basket over your sink (so that the water drains out) and place the woven basket into the sticky rice pot. Cover the rice with that close-fitting lid but make sure the lid is small enough not to let too much steam escape the basket but big enough to not touch the rice it's resting above. Keep the water boiling, again, at a level such that the water doesn't touch the basket. If the water level gets too low, add some more!

Remember that the water CANNOT TOUCH the basket once the basket is lowered into the pot!  We want STEAMED rice, not BOILED rice!  But nor do we want a scorched pot, so don't let all the water steam out!  YOU CAN DO THIS!

Perfect sized lid.

Keep an eye on the sticky rice as you prepare other parts of the dinner. 15-20 minutes into steaming, inspect the rice. It should begin to look somewhat translucent. Grab a little snitch of the rice between your fingers and taste it, checking for softness and stickiness.  If it seems soft and sticky, it's time to toss the rice in the basket so that the rice on the BOTTOM of the basket gets on the TOP.  The tossing action allows the rice to be cooked through more uniformly.  It's hard to explain this in words, but here's how I do it:

#1- Using oven mitts (cause the steam is hot!), I take off the lid and pick up the BASKET ONLY.
#2- Carefully and quickly move the basket so it's over the sink (as you might have a bit of water drip down from the steam residue), and with a lift-roll-toss motion, shake the basket.  The rice will lift up from the basket and roll in the motion you give it.
#3- Return the basket to the pot and replace the lid.  

The best analogy I have for this is like flipping a pancake on a frying pan....if anyone has a better description, feel free to leave it in the comments!! (:

Rice before tossing.  What you see on top has not been cooked as thoroughly as the rice on the bottom, but it NEEDS to be!  So give it your best toss! (:

Rice AFTER tossing!  GREAT JOB!!

After tossing, cover with the lid again and continue to cook on high till all the rice is soft and translucent (not mushy, that's just gross). Taste some to check. When done, transfer to your serving bowl and quickly wash out the steamer basket before the lingering rice can harden to the woven strands. Depending on how much sticky rice you're cooking, and how long it was soaked prior to cooking, the entire steaming process can take anywhere from 25 minutes to a full 45-60 minutes. But is it really that much more in comparison to regular rice? Not really. And no matter how long it takes, it will be SO DANG WORTH IT!!!

And there you have it.

Have you ever steamed your own sticky rice? Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or suggestions for this recipe, and THANK YOU FOR VISITING....

...The Zitchen!!! (: