Sticky Rice

The actual rice can be white, brown or black; white sticky rice will turn a translucent white when cooked.

All rice has two kinds of starch in it, “amylode” and “amylopectin” starch. Even non-sticky rice has at least 70% of “amylode” starch in it. But as you decrease the amylode starch content, and increase the proportion of “amylopectin” starch, the rice gets stickier when cooked. Some sticky rice can have up to 80% of its starch being “amylopectin” starch.

Despite one of its synonyms, “glutinous rice”, sticky rice contains no gluten. Nor, as one of its other synonyms in English would imply, is it sweet.

Sticky rice is good for dishes which involve moulded rice, as it will stick together, and for this reason, its used in making sushi and rice cakes.

It’s also often used for special dishes such as sweet rice dishes. Sticky rice can also be ground into flours or starch. See entry on sweet rice flour.

Sticky rice, cooked. © Denzil Green / 2012

Cooking Tips

To simmer: wash 2 cups uncooked sticky rice two to three times. Cook in 2 ⅔ cups of water. Bring to a boil, boil for 3 minutes, then strain off water, cover the pot again, lower the heat very low, and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

To steam: soak overnight, then steam for 40 to 45 minutes.

Substitutes

A short-grain white rice.

Equivalents

1 cup, cooked = 200 g

1 cup dried = 2 cups cooked

History Notes

Cooked sticky rice was used in mortar in the 1300s when the city walls of Xi’an, China, were reinforced and updated. ^[1]Spencer, Richard. Chinese used rice pudding as cement. London: Daily Telegraph. 1 March 2005.

Language Notes

Called “malagkit na bigas” in the Philipines.