Perfect Asian Sticky Rice

You've seen the pictures . . . I love me some asian food. In Japan I at rice three meals a day. When I got back home, I was disappointed at the rice. I figured that it was because it wasn't rice from Japan. I also knew that Japanese washed their rice. I thought it was just because that is a total Japanese thing to do. They take their shoes of before they go into their house, and they don't eat raw carrots, they are Japanese. Americans don't do those things, and they don't wash their rice. A friend of mine who lives here in hobble creek is from Japan, and she gave a Japanese cooking lesson (which was awesome, you are the best Yoshi!) she was teaching us sushi rice. She told us to wash the rice. Wait a minute, this is American grown rice, you don't need to wash it, that is like washing pasta first. So this is what I learned, you aren't washing it to make it clean, you are washing it to rinse away the starch. So if you want good sticky rice you have to rinse it first. Also, it must be noted that you should get a good brand of short grain asian rice. The best brand is NISHIKI, which you can buy at Smith's here in Utah. So cover the rice with water and drain 4-5 times. The water will progressively get clearer, but will not be entirely clear.

cloudy water on 2nd rinse

Instead of measuring the water out (because the rice will have water in it now that it has been rinsed) Use the hand technique. Put your hand flat on the rice (as shown in the picture) and fill the water until it barely covers your fingers but not your hand (barely encroaching on your fist knuckles). Now I use a rice cooker KITCHEN TOOL OF THE WEEK! (It was the first kitchen appliance I ever bought) so if you are doing it on the stove, forget about it! That is what google is for. Once I learned these techniques, I felt like I was back in Japan, but without the 35 extra pounds!