Sticky Rice with Young Rice is a signature dish of Hanoi’s autumn. This dish combines the sticky sweetness of young rice with the nutty flavors of mung beans, lotus seeds, and shredded coconut.
The process of making sticky rice with young rice is slightly more intricate than that of other sticky rice dishes. Additionally, the cook needs to have their own secrets to ensure the young rice grains are soft and fluffy, neither mushy nor bland.
**Choosing the Right Young Rice for Sticky Rice**
There’s a secret to selecting the right young rice for a delicious batch of sticky rice.
For the perfect sticky rice with young rice, choose young rice that is slightly winged and made from milk-sucking glutinous rice blossoms.
Opt for flat, firm, and thin young rice grains. When bitten into, the grain should have a chewy texture, a hint of sweetness, and a subtle fragrance of young rice.
**Ingredients for Hanoi-Style Sticky Rice with Young Rice**
In addition to fresh young rice as the main ingredient, you’ll need to prepare some other ingredients, including lotus seeds, mung beans, and shredded coconut. To enhance the aroma of the dish, add a few nếp leaves. Don’t forget to season with a pinch of sugar and salt.
**The Secret to Cooking Hanoi-Style Sticky Rice with Young Rice**
The most crucial step in determining the taste of sticky rice with young rice is to briefly soak the young rice in warm water. The water temperature is key—neither too hot nor too cold. When soaking the young rice, be quick and gentle. Overdoing it will result in mushy, bland rice, losing its natural sweetness and fragrance.
Soak the mung beans in water until they sprout, then steam them for about 25 minutes until they’re soft. Boil the lotus seeds for about 20 minutes, then mix them with a little sugar (if using dried lotus seeds, soak them in water first to make them bloom before boiling).
In a pan, mix the shredded coconut with sugar and sauté for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves, the coconut strands turn translucent, and the mixture becomes syrupy.
Once all the ingredients are cooked, it’s time to mix them together.
Mix the hot, freshly steamed mung beans with sugar and a pinch of salt, mashing them into a smooth paste. Gently knead the young rice with the mung bean paste, coating each grain. Then, add the lotus seeds and shredded coconut, mixing thoroughly.
For even tastier sticky rice, try one of these two methods: mix the young rice with a little cooking oil (or chicken fat) or coconut milk. If using oil/fat, only add the other ingredients afterward. If using coconut milk, boil it with nếp leaves for about 10 minutes until it thickens. Remove the leaves, then mix the young rice with the coconut milk to soften the grains. Gradually add the coconut milk to avoid mushy rice, then mix in the mung beans, shredded coconut, and lotus seeds.
Wrap the sticky rice in lotus or taro leaves (or banana leaves as an alternative). This step helps keep the sticky rice soft and moist.
Finally, steam the sticky rice for about 5 minutes before serving. The sticky rice is ready when the grains are soft and fluffy. Don’t oversteam, or the sticky rice will turn mushy.
After cooking, wrap the sticky rice in lotus leaves to retain its softness and absorb the fragrant aroma of the leaves.
