What kind of rice is it?!
Answers: An Asian restaurant in town makes the best rice I ever had. It's short, soft and fluffy and it sticks together. What kind of rice do you think it is? My white rice doesn't cook up like that at all, I use Texmati Long Grain, grown in Texas on the Coastal Bend.
asians use mostly jasmine rice. Softness and fluffiness depends on how much water is used. The less water the fluffier and grainier, so it depends on how u like it. Just quickly rinse how many cups of rice you want and cook it, turn the heat down right when its boiling and still wet...unless you have a rice cooker, then of course its easy.
Short grain high gluten rice or sweet rice.
It's probably a short or medium grain Asian brand rice. Don't rinse the rice before cooking, don't add butter, just add water and leave undisturbed while cooking. The Texmati rice is completely different from the rice you'd find in most Asian restaurants, it's more like the long-grain basmati rice you'd find in Indian cooking.
To the first poster, sweet rice, also known as glutinous rice, is not the same as the traditional rice main dish accompaniment in Asian cooking. Sweet rice is a special type of rice that cooks up very sticky and is often prepared using a sweetener like coconut milk, brown sugar, white sugar, etc. It's often used in desserts.
try jasmine rice...sticky and flavorful
Its more likely to be Basmati rice.
Glutinous rice is also called sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, mochi rice, and pearl rice. It's a type of short-grained Asian rice that is especially sticky when cooked. It is called glutinous in the sense of being glue-like or sticky and not in the sense of containing gluten; on the other hand, it is called sticky but should not be confused with the other varieties of Asian rice that become sticky to one degree or another when cooked. It is eaten with your hands by making a little ball and dipping it into other dishes.
While most people used to make it with a steamer, the microwave seems much easier. The grains come out a little stickier, but unless you are eating with your hands, you barely notice.
When you choose your rice, make sure you buy and use Sticky Rice. Sticky rice is not jasmine rice. If you try to cook jasmine rice this way, it will cook, but it will not taste or feel like sticky rice.
Sticky Rice Recipe
1 cup sticky rice
The Traditional Method Using a Steamer:
Soak the sticky rice in enough water to cover the rice for at least an hour and even overnight. Take your steamer, put water in the bottom and cover the steam section with cheese cloth or muslin cloth. Pour the sticky rice on the cheesecloth, cover with the lid and put it on the stove on medium to high heat. The sticky rice should take about a 20 minutes of steaming to cook and will become translucent when done.
The Microwave Method:
Soak the sticky rice for 10 minutes in warm water in a bowl. Soaking the rice is very important.The water level should be just above the rice, which comes out to be 1 cup of rice and a little over 1 cup of water (about 10% more). Use a non-plastic container because you may melt the plastic in the microwave. Cover the bowl with a dish and cook in microwave for at full power 3 minutes. Stir the rice around to move the rice from the top to the bottom. You will notice that some of the rice is translucent or cooked and some still has white center or the uncooked portion.
Heat it up again for another 3 minutes. Check and see if it is done. When cooked, all the rice should be translucent.If it needs more cooking, I recommend heating up and checking every 3 minutes or so. How long it takes to cook really depends on your microwave.
*Sticky rice is frequently eaten with a meat dish and then a broad variety of vegetables.
Tips and substitutions
There is a special bamboo steamer that people in northeastern Thailand use, but you don't really need one. All you need is a western steamer or a bowl you can set in a larger pot and some cheesecloth.
I hope this was helpful,Take Care!!! :)
How can soft and fluffy "stick together"? Really!?
My best choice for American rice is Carolina brand long grain.
Get a short grain rice such as sushi rice.
Go to sushinow.com for more info and recipes.
Look for sushi rice. They are the ones that stick together, and it's short and soft and more moist too compared to the regular long grain american rice.
But if you have the fav. asian restaurant in town, why don't you ask them where they get their rice from? Then you would be able to get exactly what you are looking for!
If you go to an asian food market owned by asian people, ask them if they carry and Japanese-make rice. They taste and cook the best to me!
Basmati or Texmati rice is more for Indian food.
For the kind you describe, look for one in an Asian store - CalRose is readily available. It's the California version of Japanese rice, like Texmati is Texas version of Basmati!
Good luck - enjoy the rice! :o)