Sticky Rice 101 -- what to know to cook it well
it can seem tricky but doesn’t need to be
Hello friends!
Happy holidays. I hope your festivities are joyous wherever you are and however you celebrate.
If you’re going to rock the Asian food world, one topic to understand is sticky rice. It’s enjoyed in East and Southeast Asia. It’s fun food. In fact, we serve it at Viet weddings because as my mom jokes, “Sticky rice is sticky so it keeps couples together!” You can play with it, like for this Viet sticky rice holiday tribute which is naturally colored but may look better than it tastes, as is with these sorts of cutesy dishes.
Sticky rice can entertain but it can also confound.
An accomplished Vietnamese chef friend once confided that she had issues with making sticky rice. She didn’t serve it on her menu, despite her mother being the sticky rice maven of their clan. “How do you keep it soft for hours to serve a crowd?” she said.
That’s among the issues with sticky rice. You have to keep it protected or it hardens. For instance, when sticky rice is served at Thai restaurants, it may be wrapped in plastic wrap and slid into a woven basket to evoke traditional steamers used.
Viet cooks don’t use the woven steamers, and there are many ways to cook sticky rice well. I’ve been writing to you about microwaving sticky rice for holiday dressing/stuffing, as a snack with roast chicken, and as a grilled banana-y dessert.
In all my sticky rice excitement, I failed to write about the rice itself! You need a baseline understanding of the East and Southeast Asian ingredient because it’s sticky and slightly tricky.
So, in this Sunday Special article, let’s cover topics such as:
what makes sticky rice unique (I made a table to summarize things!)
mochi vs sticky rice
different kind of sticky rice + how to use which kind when
how to buy and store sticky rice
potential sticky rice substitutes
If you have questions and suggestions, holler via comments.