Cooking Sticky Rice: Soaking, Steaming, Even Without a Steamer

How sticky rice differs from regular rice

Sticky rice, also called glutinous rice or sweet rice, contains almost nothing but amylopectin. This starch gelatinizes during cooking and makes the grains cling together without falling apart. Regular rice also contains amylose, which keeps the grains separate when cooked. Sticky rice contains no gluten, so it is gluten-free.

Uncooked, you can recognize sticky rice by its opaque, chalky white grains. Regular rice looks glassy.

Two types are on the market:

• Long-grain sticky rice from Thailand and Laos. It is steamed and eaten by hand, for example as khao niew with grilled dishes.
• Short-grain sticky rice from Japan, Korea and China (Japanese: mochigome). It is used for mochi, fillings and zongzi.

You cook both by the same principle. Short-grain sticky rice turns a little softer and more compact. Treat black sticky rice the same way, and read more under black rice.

Soaking sticky rice

Soaking is the most important step. During steaming hardly any extra water reaches the grain, so the grain has to take up the water beforehand.

1. Put the rice in a bowl, cover with cold water and stir through with your fingers. Pour off the cloudy water and repeat two to three times, until it is only slightly milky.
2. Cover the rice with fresh water so that a good two fingers of water stand above it. It swells.
3. Soak for at least four hours, for the best result 8 to 12 hours. In a warm kitchen, put the bowl in the fridge overnight.
4. Drain well in a sieve before steaming. A grain should now crush between your fingers.

If time is short: with lukewarm water two hours is enough, but the rice then cooks less evenly. Do not soak for less than that.

Steaming sticky rice with a steamer basket

1. Bring a few centimeters of water to a boil in a pot or wok. The water must not touch the rice later.
2. Line a bamboo basket or steamer insert with a damp cotton cloth, cheesecloth or parchment paper with a few holes.
3. Spread the drained rice on it loosely and flat. Press a few holes into it with your finger so the steam can get through.
4. Cover and steam over medium to high heat. Long-grain sticky rice needs 20 to 25 minutes, short-grain more like 25 to 30.
5. Halfway through, turn the rice once with a spatula or the cloth so the top layer does not stay dry. Check the water level in between.
6. The rice is done when it shines, looks translucent and no grain has a white core.

In Thailand and Laos, cooks steam sticky rice in a cone-shaped bamboo basket that sits in a tall pot with a narrow opening. You can get the set at an Asian grocery store, but you do not need it.

Cooking sticky rice without a steamer basket

You can also prepare sticky rice without special equipment. Three ways work reliably:

• Metal sieve over a pot: Line a sieve that fits your pot with a damp cloth, add the rice, fold the cloth over and cover with the pot lid or aluminum foil. Times as for the steamer basket.
• Plate in a pot: Stand a heatproof cup upside down in a wide pot, fill with water to just below its rim, and set a deep plate with the rice on top. Put on the lid and steam. Layer the rice on the plate only as high as the steam can get through.
• In a rice cooker: Put the soaked, drained rice in the rice cooker and add only enough water that it stands just below the surface of the rice. Many machines have a program for sticky rice. The result is a bit softer and more compact than steamed rice.

What to avoid: boiling sticky rice in lots of water like pasta and draining it. The starch washes out and you get a sticky mush with no grain structure. Only for porridges and desserts like bubur ketan hitam do you cook sticky rice in liquid on purpose.

Common mistakes

• Not soaked or soaked too briefly: The grains stay hard inside, even if you steam longer.
• Rice sits in water: The bottom part turns mushy. The water has to stay below the basket.
• Layered too thick: The rice on top stays raw. Better to steam in two batches.
• Not turned: The top layer dries out.
• Pot boiled dry: For long cooking times, check the water and top up with hot water.
• Left uncovered: Sticky rice dries quickly in the air and turns hard. Keep it in a covered basket or under a damp cloth until serving.

Uses, leftovers and storage

Steamed sticky rice goes plain with grilled meat, as with khao neow gai yang, or sweet with coconut milk in mango sticky rice. For savory versions, fry it after steaming with soy sauce and shallots, as in you fan or the Vietnamese xoi man. Wrapped in bamboo leaves and boiled, it becomes zongzi.

Store uncooked sticky rice dry and airtight, like other rice. Cool cooked sticky rice quickly and keep it covered in the fridge. Eat it within one to two days. In the fridge it turns firm and crumbly, and steaming it again for five to ten minutes makes it soft again. The microwave works too if you cover the rice with a damp cloth. Portions in plastic wrap freeze well and can be steamed from frozen.

You can buy sticky rice at Asian grocery stores, often in sacks of one to five kilos. The label says "glutinous rice" or "sweet rice." Well-stocked supermarkets and online shops carry it too. Rice pudding rice or risotto rice is no substitute, because they turn creamy but not sticky and elastic.