If you want sticky rice to soften quickly, you should wash it thoroughly and soak it before cooking. The soaking time can be from 6-8 hours or overnight. If you need to cook sticky rice for a short time, you can use warm water to shorten the soaking time.
After soaking, it is necessary to rinse the sticky rice and let it drain. This is an important step because sticky rice with too much water can make the sticky rice mushy, while sticky rice is not moist enough, it is easy to encounter a situation where the outside is soft but the inside is still rough.
A common mistake is to put raw peanuts in to steam with sticky rice from the beginning. Peanuts are harder than sticky rice, so they take longer to cook.
To make the sticky rice cook quickly and the peanuts evenly soft, you can soak the peanuts a few hours in advance, then briefly boil them until the seeds are just cooked. This method helps shorten the steaming time and limit the situation where the peanuts are soft on the outside but still hard on the inside.
After boiling, the peanuts should be drained before mixing with sticky rice.
When the sticky rice is dry, it can be mixed with peanuts. Do not stir or rub too hard because it can break the sticky rice grains, making the sticky rice after steaming easily mushy or lose its flexibility.
Another tip is to create a few airy spaces in the steamer so that steam circulates evenly. Do not press the sticky rice and peanut mixture into a too thick block.
The water in the steamer needs to be boiled before adding the steamer. Then keep the heat medium so that the steam rises evenly.
During steaming, you can use chopsticks or spoons to make a few small holes on the surface of the sticky rice so that the heat goes deep down. After about 20-30 minutes, open the lid, stir gently to allow the sticky rice grains to be evenly exposed to the heat, then continue steaming until the sticky rice is completely cooked.
If you find the sticky rice slightly dry, you can pour a small amount of warm water on the surface and continue steaming. Do not pour too much water at the same time because it can easily make the sticky rice mushy.
Sticky rice meets the requirements when the sticky rice grains are clear, soft and flexible, and no longer have hard white core. Peanuts also need to be soft and fragrant but still retain their shape.
If you find some sticky rice grains still rough, you should pour a little warm water, stir well and then steam for a few more minutes instead of adding a lot of water from the beginning.
