Grain
Sticky rice
ข้าวเหนียว
Also called glutinous rice, sweet rice, khao niao
Short opaque grains of glutinous rice (khao niao, sweet rice) that steam into a chewy cake. The “glutinous” is starch, not gluten. It is not jasmine rice, and it is not arborio.
Origin
Mainland Southeast Asia and East Asia, where it is a daily staple in the north of Thailand and Laos, and a festival and dessert grain further afield.
Flavour
Sweet, milky rice with a faint popcorn warmth when fresh. The chew is the point. Old grain cooks dull and dusty even after a long soak.
How to use it
Soak at least four hours, or overnight, then drain and steam in a basket until the grains turn translucent and cling. Boiling it in lots of water makes porridge, not sticky rice. For mango sticky rice, soak the hot grains in salted sweetened coconut milk. On a larb plate, serve it as a hand-eaten lump. A rice-cooker glutinous setting still wants a soak first. Undercooked sticky rice is chalky at the core.
Storage
Dry pantry, airtight. Cooked sticky rice dries out fast; keep it covered and re-steam rather than microwaving it into rubber. Leftovers freeze; steam from frozen.
Recipes using it
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