A few months ago, I bought a little Wolfgang Puck two-cup rice cooker. It makes it much easier to fix a little bit of rice for supper, but the rice isn’t quite as sticky as I’d like. Now I’m not going to soak the rice for hours, or wash it thrice, or anything time-consuming—but is there something simple I could do to make it stickier? Add a tablespoon of rice vinegar? Buy a particular kind of rice?
Easy enough to buy the real thing: Glutinous rice - Wikipedia
We’ve never made unsticky rice (Japanese side of the family never has either).
We just buy short grain rice, drain it, and make it in a rice cooker or on top of the stove.
Add a little olive oil.
It’s the type of rice. Use Calrose if they have it in your store. Japanese rice is shorter grained than Chinese and cooks up stickier and easier to eat with chopsticks.
I don’t make rice often, but I’ve never had a problem with making sticky rice. Soak it, or not, rinse it put it in a saucepan to cook it and soon you have a nice sticky pot of rice.
I’ve never mastered the art of making non-sticky rice.
Or just a bit of coconut milk. And use glutinous rice.
What works for me is rinsing it repeatedly. Then again.
For non-sticky rice, rinse the rice until the water runs clear. This will take a few changes of water. I also like to fry it up with some oil for a minute or so until the rice takes on a translucent color. Then go from there by adding water and continuing as you would normally cook.
Perhaps even more importantly, some types of rice are just less sticky than others. Basmati I find is pretty much non-sticky without even trying. Rinse it off a bit to be sure, but whenever I cook it up, it has well-separated grains.
ETA: Oh, I also find that the 2:1 ratio is a bit too much water for most rices, especially if you’re going to rinse it and have wet rice on your hands. I put more like 1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cups of water per cup of wet rice. You may have to experiment with your rice, as how old/dry it is will make a difference. Some rices I just use maybe a hair under 1.5 cups.
Hey, while you’re at it, how 'bout making those mashed potatoes a bit lumpier; love the lumpy taters. With skins. Thanks.
When I want sticky rice, I just use sushi rice in a rice cooker.
It’s mainly the type of rice you buy - specifically, the amount of amylose vs. amylopectin contained in the rice. The higher the amylopectin content, the stickier the rice.
Japanese varieties (Nishiki, Calrose, Koshihikari, or any rice sold as “sushi rice”) are sticky. If you want extra-sticky rice, you can look for “glutinous rice” in Asian stores - they are primarily used to make mochi but also used in some Japanese rice dishes like red bean rice. (“Glutinous” as in sticky - rice doesn’t have any gluten.)
Also, with medium-grain rice, increasing the amount of water may make the rice slightly more sticky. But if you do that with long-grain rice, it’ll just get soggy.
I’ve read that in Thailand, they used to make rice by boiling it in plenty of water, then draining most of the water, then letting sit to steam. That should make it extra non-sticky.
Though I understand most people there use rice cookers now.
Help me make stickier rice
How long are you letting it sit after you take it off the heat? If the rice cooker’s instructions say to let it sit for X minutes after the cook cycle finishes, try 2X. If it doesn’t say anything, try at least 5 minutes.
I’ve actually done that with Indian-style rice: just cook it like pasta in way more water than you need, and drain it. It works really well. I typically use this trick either with large batches of rice (like we’re talking party-tray sizes to serve 20-40 people) or with brown rice which, forever reason, I find more hit-and-miss using the standard stovetop rice cooking method (2:1 water, 40 minutes), where I often end up with a stickier mess than I want.
Go to the Asian food section of your supermarket. My favorite Japanese rice is Niko Niko and if that’s not there I’ll go for Botan. It’s a bit expensive but it never fails me in taste or stickiness! Just 3 cups of rice (rinsed and drained well) to 4 cups of water in a rice cooker and voila!