A Taste of Joy & Love

Black Sticky Rice: My kind of Joy

When I was in elementary school, my mom would give us allowances for breakfast and for snacks during our mid-day school break. Our allowance is only a few thousand VND (roughly 1 to 2 US dollars). To save money, I used half of my allowance and always look for “cheap breakfast” food to enjoy. Black sticky rice was always on my top list.

Snack stands lured students and the lady who sold a variety of sticky rice became known as “sticky rice” lady. The selection would run out fast and if I wanted to get my hands on the best black sticky rice, I had to catch her very early in the morning. Ahh, childhood memories!!!

Now don’t get fooled by its “cheap breakfast” label; this simple yet luscious breakfast food is another hidden gem that emerges and adds color to the wonderful Vietnamese cuisine: the fragrant of black rice, dressed in warm coconut mung bean, accessorized with sesame seeds and shredded coconut.

Black sticky rice is another simple and easy to make dish that can be enjoy on those chilly Fall mornings. Black rice is popular in the mountain areas in Northern Vietnam. It is the main ingredient in making rice wine and sticky rice. One of the unique things about black rice is its cooking time; it cooks twice as long compared to traditional rice. But it is still a popular breakfast food because of its wonderful scent and its side companions: shredded coconut, sesame salt and mung bean.

For this dish, adding some regular sticky rice to the black rice not only made the rice softer and smoother, but yield a wonderful “purple color”. In my opinion, this dish should name purple rice instead of black sticky rice. The coconut milk is then combined with steamed mung bean. At last, the scallions oil to top it off along with sesame salt.

Ingredients:

2 cups black rice 1 cup regular sweet rice 1/2 teaspoon salt about 2 to 3 stalk green onion 1 can (14oz) coconut milk 1/2 bag of mung bean 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 bag shredded frozen coconut (steam or wash thoroughly)

Mix 2 cups of black rice with 1 cup of regular rice. Wash well about 2, 3 times and soak them over night. Also wash well the mung bean and soak overnight (or at least 8 hours)

The next morning, the sweet rice should blend in with the black rice, yielding a purple-ish color. Strain through a colander and add 1/2 teaspoon salt before steaming

Make a hole in the middle of the steamer and steam the rice for about 15 minus, medium heat

While waiting for the sticky rice to cook, get the mung bean ready in another steamer. Because I don’t have 2 steamer, and to save time, I use a pot and a metal colander as a steamer to steam the mung bean until tender.

When the mung bean is cooked and tender, you can smash it or put in in a grinder and grind for about 2 minutes. Put the mung bean back in the pot and add 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 can of coconut milk on low heat until the mixture becomes creamy and smooth. Don’t forget to stir evenly so the mung bean doesn’t burn. The mixture will feel a little “liquidy” at first. Don’t worry after you let it sit in room temperature, it will get thicker

While waiting for Mr. mung bean to chill, get the chopped onion and add 1 soup spoon of vegetable oil. Microwave for about 30 seconds and you’ll get a beautiful onions and oil topping for later

For the sesame salt and sugar:

In a hot frying pan, heat 2 soup spoons of sesame seeds and shake them until become darken and fragrant. Now add 1/2 soup spoon salt and 2 soup spoon of sugar

Presentation:

Spread mung bean mixture on top of sticky rice. Add some oiled onions, shredded coconut and sprinkle some sesame salt and sugar mixture. Enjoy!!

“SPEECHLESS” I’M IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN ?

Print Black Rice Recipe