I_am_Tosk wrote:
>
> Sticky ri is not the product of the cooking, it's the product you *are*
> cooking. Glutenous rice or Sweet rice is used, it is a bit different
> than "regular" rice and makes for great stick.

It almost seems like people are discussing Uncle Bens individual grain
rice versus the classic regular rice eaten in globs with chopsticks.

Neither is the separate type of glutinous grain. When steamed glutinous
grains merge into a single solid mass. I've had it in desserts at Thai
places, at breakfast at Dim Sum places. I've tried to make it myself
and could hardly get the pasty mass out of the pan. It's good but there
are tricks to cooking it.

Is glutinous grain a different species than rice? Sort of like how
"wild rice" is not the same species as rice? I think so but the way
species works in plants is not the way species work in animals. Maybe
they are a different "cultivar" not a different species. Whatever the
details of the difference glutinous grain should not even have the word
"rice" in its name. Maybe there's more difference between pineapple and
pine trees than there is between glutinous grain and rice.

Anyways, what is the trick to cooking this stuff? Near as I can tell
the folks who know what they are doing use an organic wrapper to keep it
from sealing to the pan like mortar to a brick. Then they pick a
wrapper that sticks less to it than the pan would. Sorta like the corn
husk wrappers for tamales but masa corn flour doesn't stick at all in
comparison to glutinous grain.