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| Source: Starlight Express/Flickr |
"Rice is very, very special for everyone in the village. Rice is like life" - Vang Thi Pi, Tour Guide and Homestay Owner in Lao Chai, Sa Pa
Rice is very important to the Black Hmong community of Lao Chai. I wanted to pay homage to Lao Chai by cooking the traditional purple sticky rice recipe featured in this CBT Vietnam video. I watched the video on repeat searching for clues, scourged the internet and even reached out to members of the Lao Chai community on Facebook but came up short. In the end, the recipe for sticky purple rice remains safely tucked away among the emerald rice patties of Sa Pa.
I did manage to find an authentic Laos Hmong recipe from "Cooking From the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America". I quickly discovered that this rice recipe has a lot of steps! First, rinse rice and then rinse a second time. Next, soak the rice for several hours in fresh cold water. Once the long water bath is complete, steam rice for 20 minutes (I didn't have a steaming basket and had to improvise with tin foil...see below!). After the first seaming, soak rice in boiling water for 10 minutes (apparently this makes the rice fluffy) then, at long last, a final steam for 20 minutes.
This process seemed very daunting at first but was actually much easier than I anticipated. Though it does require a good portion of time, including a 3 hour soak, the total cooking time is about 1 hour for all rinsing, resting and steaming. I found a tin foil "hack" to mimic the steaming basket and it worked incredibly well!
Rice is very important to the Black Hmong community of Lao Chai. I wanted to pay homage to Lao Chai by cooking the traditional purple sticky rice recipe featured in this CBT Vietnam video. I watched the video on repeat searching for clues, scourged the internet and even reached out to members of the Lao Chai community on Facebook but came up short. In the end, the recipe for sticky purple rice remains safely tucked away among the emerald rice patties of Sa Pa.
I did manage to find an authentic Laos Hmong recipe from "Cooking From the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America". I quickly discovered that this rice recipe has a lot of steps! First, rinse rice and then rinse a second time. Next, soak the rice for several hours in fresh cold water. Once the long water bath is complete, steam rice for 20 minutes (I didn't have a steaming basket and had to improvise with tin foil...see below!). After the first seaming, soak rice in boiling water for 10 minutes (apparently this makes the rice fluffy) then, at long last, a final steam for 20 minutes.
This process seemed very daunting at first but was actually much easier than I anticipated. Though it does require a good portion of time, including a 3 hour soak, the total cooking time is about 1 hour for all rinsing, resting and steaming. I found a tin foil "hack" to mimic the steaming basket and it worked incredibly well!
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| A typical steaming basket (Source: Pantawan Cooking) |
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| My tin foil hack |
So, how did it taste? Oh this rice is good! Really, really good. For comparison, I prepared a batch according to the package directions while waiting for the long soak which instructed to rinse in cold water, boil water, add rice and simmer for 15 minutes. It was okay. This rice was a bit soggy, damp ad heavy. But the Hmong rice was fluffy and somehow incredibly flavourful even though I didn’t add anything to it (not even salt!). Was it worth the extra effort? Absolutely!
I'm very excited for our trip to Sa Pa tomorrow so I can discover how rice is prepared in Lao Chai. Ultimately, I'm not sure how this recipe compares to cooking methods in Loa Chai but I think the attention to detail is similar. Everything worthwhile is found in the details.
I'm very excited for our trip to Sa Pa tomorrow so I can discover how rice is prepared in Lao Chai. Ultimately, I'm not sure how this recipe compares to cooking methods in Loa Chai but I think the attention to detail is similar. Everything worthwhile is found in the details.
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| The final product: delicious, fluffy rice! |
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