This is just a really quick recipe, because it’s not for a full dish to eat, but it’s rather an essential ingredients used in a variety of northeastern Thai (Isaan) dishes, as well as dishes in the country of Laos as well. Although this might seem very simple, and it’s really is easy to make, it contributes a wonderful fragrance and texture to the dishes that use it.
In Thai, toasted sticky rice powder is called khao khua (ข้าวคั่ว), which literally translates to dry roasted rice. In this case, most of the time sticky rice is used (it can also be called sweet rice or glutinous rice) – the grains are usually kind of milky in color and aren’t transparent. Instead of rinsing and steaming the rice as one would do to make a pot of rice to eat, for this recipe, the sticky rice is dry fried. You can either use frying pan or a wok, and you want to turn your fire to a medium heat. Once your pan is hot, just toss in the rice – I used about 1 cup of uncooked rice, but you can prepare however much you want – I like to keep my batches kind of small because I think it tastes best when it’s prepared and used fresh. Also, per dish you only need to use about 1 spoon or so of khao khua (ข้าวคั่ว), so it’s not consumed like rice – you just need a bit per dish.
Keep dry frying the sticky rice for about 15 minutes. It should start to turn yellow and golden in color, and it should really start to smell extremely good – kind of like popcorn – a nice roasted grain flavor. After the rice is toasted to perfection, golden but not overcooked, it’s time to pound it into a powder. I used the hand method of pounding it with a mortar and pestle, but you can alternatively add the roasted sticky rice to a blender or food processor to grind it up. You don’t want a really fine powder, but you’re looking for a nice coarse crunchy powder.
In Thai Isaan food, khao khua (ข้าวคั่ว) is a key ingredient in many meat salads like nam tok (น้ำตก) and laab (ลาบ), it’s also used in soups like gaeng om (แกงอ่อม), and it’s also used in some dipping sauces.
Toasted sticky rice powder (khao khua ข้าวคั่ว), help to thicken dishes, provides a nice smoky brunt fragrance, and finally it adds a crunchy texture to the dishes it uses.
Read the full toasted rice powder recipe here: http://www.eatingthaifood.com/2015/04/toasted-rice-powder-recipe/
Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network
This video was produced by Mark Wiens and Ying Wiens in Thailand: http://migrationology.com/blog & http://www.eatingthaifood.com/
►More authentic Thai street food recipes: http://www.eatingthaifood.com/thai-recipes/
►Eating Thai Food Guide: http://www.eatingthaifood.com/eating-thai-food-guide/