STICKY RICE SERVING BASKET RECIPES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, rinse the rice with room temperature water three times.  Use your hand as a whisk and swirl in one motion while occasionally squeezing the rice into a ball under the water.  The water should become cloudy as the outside layer of the starch is removed.  You should be able to see through the water with the third rinse. Have the rice sitting under two inches of water from the surface level.  It will soak up the water slowly and soften the rice to be cooked.  Ideally, soak the rice for at least 12 hours.  If you are crunched on time, you can soak the rice for one hour with warm water.  The longer you soak the rice, the more fluffy it will be.  Don’t try soaking the rice in less than an hour because you will get hard granules. Bring out your huat khao sticky rice cooker or general steamer and fill it up with water at least 4 inches high.  Bring it to a boil.  Dump all your soaked rice into the bamboo basket and rinse it once while it's in the basket so all the rice pieces are at the bottom.  Put the bamboo basket on top of the boiling pot and place a lid on top.  Let it cook for 15 minutes.  Take the bamboo basket off the metal pot and toss so the bottom of the rice is on top.  Place it back on the metal pot and finish steaming for another 15 minutes.   Take the rice off the metal pot and place the hot sticky rice on a non-stick surface.  Fan and fold the rice a few times so the steam leaves the rice and lets it cool down.  Once you can touch the rice with your bare hands, roll it into a ball and place it into a thip khao sticky rice basket. Serve the rice immediately.  It will be perfect for the next meal in a few hours.  Or break up the sticky rice and re-steam it for 5 minutes the next day.