Cooked black sticky rice or Khao-Neow-Dum in Thai ข้าวเหนียวดำ is in fact a combination of white sticky rice and unmilled black rice.
In an electric rice cooker that you already have in your kitchen. Right here in the United States. And everywhere else.
The proven cooking method is unbelievably easy just like the way you can cook regular sticky rice in an electric rice cooker. Perfectly. Just follow the same directions as outlined in my How to Make Perfect Sticky Rice in a Rice Cooker ข้าวเหนียว post from August 2011.
The only thing you have to change is the ratio of the black rice (1) to the white rice (3). So in this recipe, I used one cup of the black rice and three cups of the white rice.
One-quarter of the black rice and three-quarter of the white sticky rice.
The two brands that are sold at my local Asian grocery came from two different sources. The first brand is By Fine Land M&P from Thailand. The second bag of rice was imported from Mainland China. I however don’t follow the directions on the bags. The recipe above, like the white sticky rice, has been tested and made perfectly cooked rice. The method of mixing both rices are generally done in both Thai and Lao kitchens. When the black rice is cooked by itself, the texture is hard and non-sticky. But when mixed with the sticky rice, the stickiness (glutinous or glue-like) from the white rice transfers to the black rice. In French, it’s the correct translation of such rice “riz gluant “(glutinous rice) as I would, before heading to work at the U.S. embassy, write on our daily to-do list to my French-speaking cook in a Francophone African country.
Mix both rices together well. More white rice than black rice.
As far as the overnight soaking, I skip it. I had done it many, many times with the cumbersome steps like these, including in the special rice pot and the bamboo steamer that looks like an upside down pyramid-shaped hat.
Don't throw away your unused bamboo rice steamer. Color and decorate it as a headgear like what these little dance performers had on their heads. Ghost Festival (Phi-Ta-Kone ผีตาโขน), Loei Province, Thailand, August 2010.
Just make sure that both rices are rinsed together a couple of times. When ready to add water to cook them, err on the side of too little water than too much water. Why? You don’t want it to boil over and overflow from the rice cooker. It’ll be pretty messy.
While the name in Thai is rice-sticky-black (Khao-Neow-Dum), the color of the final cooked product resembles a deep purple color.
Finally, because the black (OK, purple) color turns white rice into nicely blended black rice once cooked, you’ll notice that your fingers may be stained while rinsing the rices. Your rice pot may turn purple as well. In my case, I cooked another batch of regular Jasmine rice the following day, the stain disappeared. So consider yourself warned.
One of my Teenagers likes it plain. The rice has a hint of sweetness. There are, however, many recipes to turn this simple rice into sweets.
Purple
globalsquatter 