Cooking mooncake sticky rice cake with a fast and fluffy electric rice cooker using this secret recipe

Special Full Moon Day is incomplete without a plate of sticky rice. However, it can be inconvenient and time-consuming to use traditional methods. Instead, you can use an electric rice cooker to quickly cook sticky rice that is soft, even, and not mushy.

Steps to cook sticky rice in an electric rice cooker:

Prepare the ingredients:

An electric rice cooker, the better the cooker, the better the rice

500g glutinous rice (adjust according to the number of family members)

Other ingredients to cook with: split mung beans, black beans, peanuts, gac fruit, pandan leaves depending on preferences.

A pinch of salt, a little cooking oil / chicken fat, coconut water, coconut fiber, roasted sesame seeds to serve

Prepare the ingredients:

Soak split mung beans, black beans, peanuts in water before cooking to soften the beans. Grind pandan leaves and squeeze for juice to let it settle, then the color will be better, or use pandan leaf oil for a more fragrant and green color.

If using gac fruit, remove the pulp and sprinkle a little white wine to enhance the color of the fruit.

If adding coconut, shred the coconut into thin strips, use coconut water and coconut fiber for the rice dish.

Split mung beans will cook at the same time as the glutinous rice, so if cooking glutinous rice with mung beans, you only need to soak the mung beans for half an hour and then mix them evenly with the rice.

If cooking black bean sticky rice (for eating, not for offerings), there are 2 methods: Soak the black beans for 2 hours, then boil them until the beans are soft before mixing with the rice. Roasting the soaked beans in a pan to dry them will make the beans softer and more fragrant.

If cooking peanut sticky rice, soak the peanuts for about 2 hours, then cook them briefly before simmering with the glutinous rice to make the peanuts tender and the rice sticky. If you add the peanuts into the rice immediately, the peanuts will not be soft enough and the texture will not be ideal.

Choose good glutinous rice

Good glutinous rice should be golden flowered, with even and intact grains. Avoid broken grains. Good glutinous rice is white and does not have a grey belly. It does not have black tips or a greasy smell. When smelling the rice, it should be fragrant without any musty smell, indicating freshness. Rice that has been stored for a long time will not be fragrant and will feel damp. It will not be sticky when cooked.

How to cook sticky rice in an electric rice cooker

Prepare the glutinous rice as you would with normal rice. When cooking sticky rice in an electric rice cooker, you do not need to soak the rice beforehand, but it will still be delicious and sticky. Many types of rice nowadays absorb more water than traditional glutinous rice, so cooking sticky rice in an electric rice cooker without soaking makes it easier for you.

Method 1: Cook with just enough water: After rinsing the glutinous rice, mix it with the other ingredients or pandan water, gac water, depending on what type of sticky rice you want. Then add enough water to just cover the rice. Add a little salt and sugar to remove any bitterness from the rice.

Turn on the rice cooker as usual. When the cooker switches to warm mode, use chopsticks to stir the rice evenly. This is because the water has covered the rice, and some grains on the surface will not have enough steam to fully cook. If you don’t stir, these grains will remain uncooked. While stirring, add a tablespoon of cooking oil or chicken fat. Once stirred, cover the rice and let it continue to cook with the residual heat. Be quick when doing this to retain the heat and avoid having to turn on the cook button again, which may cause the rice to stick to the bottom of the cooker. About 10 minutes later, open the lid to prevent the condensation on the lid from dripping back onto the rice, making it soggy. Don’t leave it for too long, or the rice will become sticky and clumpy when eaten.

Scoop the sticky rice onto a plate for worship or serve with salted peanuts, roasted sesame salt, braised meat and eggs…

Method 2: Cook with excessive water and drain it: With this method, you don’t need to measure the water carefully. Just pour more water than usual. Put the mixture of rice and beans into the cooker. Pour boiling water into the cooker until it covers the surface of the rice about 1 centimeter. When the cooker boils again, let it cook for another minute, then drain the water. Continue cooking until the rice cooker switches to the keep warm mode. Wait for 10 minutes, then open the cooker and add a little cooking oil or chicken fat to stir evenly to make the rice glossy. Cover the rice again for another 5 minutes before serving.

This method of cooking sticky rice with excessive water is only suitable for cooking plain sticky rice, mung bean sticky rice, peanut sticky rice, etc. It is not suitable for cooking gac sticky rice, coconut sticky rice, pandan sticky rice as it will dilute the flavor and color of the gac fruit, pandan leaves, and coconut.

Tips for delicious sticky rice

If you want the rice grains to be shiny and not sticky, and have a chewy texture, you can mix cooking oil or chicken fat into the rice after it is cooked and avoid stirring it too much during the cooking process. Use chopsticks to fluff the rice before using a spoon to scoop it onto a plate. Avoid using a spoon to stir from the beginning as it will break more rice grains.

If you have coconut water, using it instead of filtered water will make the rice fragrant and have a coconut flavor. When the rice is cooked, replace the cooking oil or chicken fat with a little coconut milk.

Another secret to delicious sticky rice is to add a small amount of sugar, about half a teaspoon for half a kilogram of glutinous rice, to remove the bitter taste of the rice without making it overly sweet.