Food & Receipts

No need for a rice cooker or steaming basket, cook sticky, quick, and perfectly fragrant rice with an electric rice cooker using this method

Sticky rice is an essential dish during the full moon days at home and is also a regular breakfast for many people. No need for fancy equipment, just cook it in a rice cooker and you'll have a delicious plate of perfectly cooked sticky rice.

Administrator

28 November, 2023

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On the first full moon day, the ancestral spirit altar cannot be without a plate of sticky rice to offer. If you don’t have time to go to the market in the morning, you can cook it at home using an electric rice cooker.

Traditionally, sticky rice is steamed using a bamboo steaming basket and cooked twice to ensure a sticky and chewy texture. However, you can use an electric rice cooker to quickly cook sticky rice that is both sticky and fragrant, perfect for offering on the ancestral altar.

Preparing the ingredients:

500g glutinous rice (adjust the quantity depending on the number of family members)

Other types of beans to cook with: peeled mung beans, black beans, peanuts, gac fruit, depending on your preference. If you want to offer the sticky rice, it is mainly cooked with gac fruit or mung beans. Avoid using black beans and peanuts for the offering.

A pinch of salt, a little cooking oil/chicken fat, toasted sesame and peanuts for garnishing

Preparation:

Soak the mung beans, black beans, and peanuts in water before cooking to soften them. If using gac fruit, cut it open and mix with a little white wine to enhance the color.

If cooking sticky rice with mung beans, soak the mung beans for half an hour, then mix them evenly with the glutinous rice.

For black beans, there are two methods: Soak for 2 hours, then cook until boiling to soften the beans before mixing with rice. Another secret is to roast the soaked beans in a pan to dry them, which will make the beans fragrant and soft.

Soak the peanuts for about 2 hours, then simmer them to partially soften them. When cooked with sticky rice, the peanuts will be soft and the rice will be chewy. If you cook the peanuts with the rice from the beginning, the peanuts will not be soft enough.

Choosing good glutinous rice:

Good glutinous rice should have evenly shaped grains, without any broken ones. The grains should be yellow, not white, and should not have a oily smell. Milky white grains taste better than white and opaque ones.

How to cook sticky rice using an electric rice cooker:

Rinse the glutinous rice thoroughly like regular rice. Nowadays, glutinous rice is less sticky than before, so it doesn’t need soaking to achieve a sticky texture (soaking the rice helps soften the grains and reduce the bitterness, making the sticky rice chewier). Nowadays, glutinous rice absorbs water better than before, so when cooking sticky rice using an electric rice cooker, not soaking it makes the cooking process easier.

Method 1: Cooking with the right amount of water:

After rinsing the glutinous rice and preparing the beans according to the above steps, mix them together. Add a pinch of salt and a little sugar to reduce the bitterness of the rice. Then, put the mixture into the rice cooker. Add water until it submerges the rice.

If cooking gac sticky rice, mix the gac fruit flesh with the rice to evenly distribute the color. Remember to add a little white wine for a brighter color. Remove the gac fruit seeds to achieve the right amount of water. If cooking gac sticky rice, add more sugar than other sticky rice varieties, as people usually prefer sweeter gac sticky rice.

Start the rice cooker. When the cooker switches to the keep warm mode, use chopsticks to stir the rice. This is because the water is concentrated at the bottom, and some rice grains on the top may not have enough steam to cook, so stirring ensures all the grains cook evenly.

While stirring, add a spoonful of cooking oil or chicken fat to make the rice shiny and moist. It also enhances the taste and texture of the rice.

After stirring, close the rice cooker’s lid to continue steaming the rice with residual heat. This step needs to be done quickly to retain heat and avoid having to switch the cook mode back on, which can cause the rice to stick to the bottom of the cooker. After 10 minutes, remove the lid to prevent the steam on the lid from dripping back onto the rice, making it wet and sticky.

Use a mold to shape the sticky rice for offering. To serve, simply scoop it onto a plate or bowl and enjoy with toasted sesame and peanuts, roasted sesame salt, or braised meat and eggs.

Method 2: Cooking with excess water:

With this method, you don’t need to measure the water precisely. Instead, add more water than usual. Mix the glutinous rice and beans in the rice cooker. Pour boiling water over them, submerging the surface of the rice by about 1 centimeter. When the water boils again, let it boil for 1 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. Stir well to make the rice shiny and beautiful. Close the lid for another 5 minutes, then scoop the sticky rice out.

The rice grains will be shiny and have a smooth texture thanks to the cooking oil/chicken fat.

If you have coconut water, you can cook the rice with coconut water instead of plain water. This will give the rice a fragrant and coconut taste. When the rice is cooked, replace the cooking oil/chicken fat with some coconut juice.

Another tip for delicious and fragrant sticky rice is to add a little sugar, just a teaspoon, so that the rice doesn’t become overly sweet but can remove any bitterness in the rice.

If cooking gac sticky rice, it’s best to use the method with excess water. Avoid using the method with draining the water, as it will cause the red oil from the gac fruit to drain out, resulting in a less beautiful color and reduced nutritional value and flavor.