Balinese Rice

Rice (nasi) is the main staple of Indonesian food. Even when families are poor, there is always rice to eat. In North America people normally use a pot on the stove or a rice cooker to make rice. However in Bali there is a traditional way of making rice that takes much longer, but the results are delicious! I’ve never seen jasmine rice cooked in a bamboo steamer before. I’ve only seen Thai sticky rice steamed in one, so this was a first for me!

Ingredients

• 1 kg white rice
• 2 later water for soaking
• 1/2 litre of hot water

Instructions

1. Wash the rice and keep on changing the water. Do this repeatedly until the rice becomes clean or the water is less cloudy.
2. Soak the rice for about 30 minutes.
3. Heat the water in a pot. Add the clean rice into a bamboo steamer sitting on top of the pot and cover. Steam for about 20 minutes until the rice becomes hard and sticky.
4. On the other store heat water.
5. Take the medium cooked rice from the bamboo steamer, put it into a stainless steel bowl and pour the hot water mixture over top of the rice and soak for approximately 20 minutes until the water has been absorbed into the rice.
6. Return the rice to the bamboo steamer and steam for another 25 minutes. After well done arrange the cooked rice in the rice basket.