Khao mak

Steamed sticky rice inoculated with a yeast ball and left two days until it swims in its own liquor.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 600 g glutinous rice
• 2 look pang starter balls
• cooled boiled water, for rinsing

Method

1. EVERYTHING THAT TOUCHES IT MUST BE CLEAN AND COOL. This is a deliberate ferment with no salt and no acid protecting it, so it is defended only by the starter outcompeting everything else. Scald the jar, the spoon and your hands, and let them cool. Warm rice kills the starter; a dirty spoon gives something else the first foothold.
2. Soak the rice 6 hours, then steam it in a cloth 30 minutes until tender and translucent.
3. RINSE THE COOKED RICE under cooled boiled water until the grains run separate and are cool to the touch. This takes off the surface starch that would otherwise go slimy, and brings the temperature down.
4. Drain it thoroughly. Standing water makes it sour instead of sweet.
5. Crush the starter balls to a fine powder between two spoons. Lumps of starter make pockets that ferment at different rates.
6. Dust a third of the powder into the jar, a third through the rice, and a third over the top, layering as you pack it in loosely. DO NOT PRESS IT DOWN -- it needs air spaces.
7. Cover with a cloth rather than a lid, and leave at room temperature, out of the sun, 2 to 3 days.
8. By day two there should be clear sweet liquid in the bottom and the rice should taste sweet with a faint burn of alcohol. That liquid is the point of it.
9. IF IT SMELLS SHARP, SOUR OR OF SOLVENT, or shows any colour other than white, throw it away. A good one smells sweet and winey and nothing else.
10. Refrigerate once it tastes right, which stops it going further. Eat it cold, liquid and all.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes