• Kuam Hu Seuk Bork by Aluna

This was taken at noontime on Friday and I was lucky enough to catch her while she was still out there harvesting her rice crops. I do have to say that the hot summer sun does wonders for the rice paddy.

I didn’t expect them to harvest their rice crops this early, but some are ready.

But some are no where near harvesting, these rice pods just came in, the smell of the new rice pods are in the air.

I was talking to my cousin last weekend and she said that the smell came from Kao Kom or purple rice plants, the new rice pods of Kao Kom, or even the leaves have a strong aroma. I heard from my oldest sister that the purple sticky rice are very hard and some are not eatable, but the owner of this paddy said that hers are very soft and chewy, just like a normal sticky rice, and she will give some for me to try.

My oldest sister said that she uses the store bought purple rice as a dye or coloring, which the owner of this paddy also agreed, and uses it to soak the white sticky rice, and as a result you get purple sticky rice.  Not the authentic purple rice at all and don’t be surprised if many restaurants use this technique, or the purple sticky rice desserts that you bought from the Asian Market or the festive events at Wat (temple) are actually white sticky rice.  This is like the Thai saying of ‘yorm mail kai’ (dying cat for sale), but this is often referring to giving an extreme makeover to a young lady in order to marry her off.

As for this purple rice, to get the best result, you first boil a couple handfuls of purple sticky rice until the water turns purple, let it sit to cool, then use this purple water to soak the white sticky rice, and for a deeper purple color, you can also soak more purple sticky rice with this by placing it in a thin cloth bag, and as a result, you get a soft chewy purple sticky rice.

My favorite Thai dessert, Purple Sticky Rice with Mango, photo borrowed from mhaithaca at Flickr.

This rice basket is commonly used by many to cook (steam) sticky rice, photo borrowed from Anne A Belle at Flickr.

Then I saw this while I was visiting my Aunt in Paksan Laos, and she said it’s called Moil.  It’s carved from wood, and very sturdy in comparison to the bamboo basket.

How to cook Sticky Rice by Manivan Larprom