What is it?
This sticky rice dish has the sweet chewy taste from glutinous rice, the exquisite aromas and flavors of pandan leaves/coconut and a distinctive beautiful green color. They can be served as dessert or as part of a main course. In the way of a Vietnamese, sticky rice will be eaten along with a mixture of roasted peanut/sesame/salt.
Pandan Sticky Rice (Xôi Lá Nếp) – Image from danangcuisine.com
How do you make it?
Glutinous rice needs to be soaked for at least 4 hours but preferable overnight around 8-12 hours. The longer you soak it, the shorter the cook time is. Drain the glutinous rice in colander.
For the pandan leaves, you wash them cleanly, cut them in small pieces. Then, add all the pieces into a blender with a cup of cold water. Next, you filter/squeeze the pureed pandan leaves, remove the residue and just keep the pandan juice.
Add rice to mixing bowl and add pandan juice, a little of salt, sugar, and 2 or 3 drop of green food color; the dish cannot shine a catch-eye green color with just a dozen of leaves so some food color is needed. Mix well until all the grains have an even color.
Soak the rice in pandan juice, some drops of green food color will do the magic – Image from fruitiecake.blogspot.com
Bring water in your steamer to boil. Line your steamer pan or bamboo basket and add the seasoned glutinous rice. Cover the rice with a large piece of cloth and at last, cover with a lid. When the rice grain can be squished in your fingers but still slight firm, you add in the rice some coconut milk/cream and fluff the rice, steam again until the rice is chewy. If the sticky rice isn’t cooked through at the first attempt, add 3 or 4 spoons of water, fluff the rice with chopsticks and steam again. Remove and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
The result will be amazing, both visuality and taste – Image from setupnhahang.bepchien.com
In the meantime, in a mortal and pestle, crush the roasted peanuts/white sesame/salt and crush together. Fluff the cooked sticky rice out of the steamer and transfer to serving plate. Sprinkle some peanuts/sesame mix on top and garnish with shredded coconut. Your dish is completed!
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