Glutinous Rice

There is absolutely nothing gooey about “glutinous rice”, it is just very sticky and terribly good. It is cooked by steaming after having soaked for several hours in cold water.

You can easily find a packet of glutinous rice in any Asian grocery store . Here is a picture but the name is written in huge on the package, hard to be wrong! Up close it has an almost powdery appearance compared to traditional rice.

To prepare the glutinous rice, first soak it at least one night in a large container of cold water. The next day, drain the rice well and put it in a basket specially designed for this rice. This is a wicker basket in the shape of an inverted Vietnamese hat. It costs 2 or 3 euros at Tang frères. You can probably find similar ones in any Asian grocery store. There are also smaller baskets that close like a box.

If of course none of this is available in the neighborhood, then you can also put it in a steamer.

The advantage with the wicker basket is that it will give the rice a little taste that is very subtle and delicious. Very authentic! In the following picture, you can see the basket on a pot. The bottom of the basket does not touch the bottom of the pot where there is enough water to boil. Of course, the water must not touch the rice! The rice is simply placed in the basket, with the lid of the pot on the basket.

All that remains is to steam the rice with the lid closed. After twenty minutes, take the basket and shake it to form a ball of rice, then replace the lid to continue cooking. The rice is cooked after another 20-25 minutes. The total cooking time is almost 45 minutes. It depends on the amount of rice. It is also important to know that glutinous rice hardly swells at all.