Steamed Chinese Sticky Rice

Hey everyone, welcome back. Today we're making Mama Lin's steamed sticky rice, nomaifan. My mom is actually going to show us how to make two different versions of her sticky rice, one with taro pieces and one without. What you'll need for this recipe is glutinous rice, also called sweet rice. This is the long grain glutinous rice, which is slightly different from Japanese style sweet rice, mochigome. I've placed a bowl of glutinous rice alongside a bowl of jasmine rice to illustrate how glutinous rice is more dense. You can see that it has a stronger white color. Because it's more dense, long grain glutinous rice takes longer to cook than regular white rice. That's why most recipes will tell you to soak glutinous rice overnight before cooking it. Because Mama Lin cooks for a big family, she's soaking a lot of rice. She told me there's about 9 or 10 cups of rice in there and showed me what she used as her measuring cup. Guys, this cup has been in the family for as long as I've been alive. It's the cup that my mom saved from the flight when my family immigrated to America. Right now, she's dividing the soaked glutinous rice between two large stainless steel pans that are lightly greased on the bottom. Smooth over the rice. My mom's telling me that she leaves a little water in the bottom of the pan like you see here to ensure that the rice cooks fully. The water is barely covering the bottom of the pan. Now for the flavoring bits to go along with the sticky rice. Mama Lin loves using dried seafood in her cooking. Before using the dried seafood, you should soak them to rehydrate them. My mom also recommends shredding the scallops so that they're more evenly distributed when you mix everything together later on. As I mentioned in the beginning, Mama Lin is making a batch sticky rice with taro pieces in it. Taro is an earthy, starchy root vegetable. For this recipe, you'll want to use the large variety of taro. These smaller ones tend to be slimy once cooked. Mama Lin usually fries up the flavoring bits so that they release some flavor. She's adding some chicken bouillon powder for flavor. So many Chinese mothers use this in their cooking. Mama Lin is also adding some soy sauce and rice cooking wine for flavor. Dish up everything. You don't need to fully cook these flavoring bits right now. My mom is also sauteing some peas and carrots that she's already blanched in hot water. My mom loves using this garlic salt. She seasons everything with it. Finally, my mom is sauteing the shallots with the taro pieces. Again, she's not fully cooking the taro. This is just to get some of the flavors going. She's seasoning the taro with some chicken bouillon powder and some five spice powder. Mama Lin is spreading all the taro pieces over one of the pans of glutinous rice. Then, she's topping it with the dried seafood and meat mixture. The other plate only has the seafood and meat on top. Fill up a large wok with some water and place a steaming rack in the middle. Bring the water to boil. Carefully place one of the pans over the steaming rack. Steam the rice for about 25 minutes. If you don't have a wok, you can use a large and deep saute pan like this one. Because these saute pans usually aren't as deep as a wok, you'll want to use a shorter steaming rack to ensure that you can cover the pan with the lid properly. After 25 minutes, Mama Lin will check to see if the rice is cooked through. She usually flips everything over before steaming the sticky rice for another 5 to 10 minutes. This is the other batch of rice. Steam this batch for another 5 to 10 minutes as well. For more seasoning, my mom is sprinkling some sugar over the rice, along with a soy sauce and rice wine mixture. Stir everything together. Sprinkle the vegetables over the rice. My mom loves serving her sticky rice with fresh cilantro. If you don't like cilantro, you can use chopped scallions. Alright, that's it for Mama Lin's Sticky Rice. You can find the full recipe on my blog. Don't forget to hit subscribe for more cooking videos!