Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa)

Glutinous rice (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa or Oryza glutinosa) is also known as sticky rice, sweet rice, waxy rice, botan rice, biroin chal, mochi rice, and pearl rice. It is called nuomi in Chinese, pulut (Malaysia), mochigome (Japan), chapssal (Korea), khao niao (Laos and Thailand), gao nep (Vietnam), malagkit (Philippines) and kao hnyin (Myanmar). Glutinous rice is a short-grained Asian rice that is sticky when cooked.

Glutinous rice is grown in China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia and Vietnam. It does not contain dietary gluten (glutenin and gliadin), and should be safe for gluten-free diets. Glutinous rice contains high amounts of amylopectin and no amylose. Amylopectin is resposible for the sticky quality of the rice.

Glutinous rice can be used either milled or unmilled ( with the bran removed or not removed). Milled rice is white in color, whereas the bran can give unmilled glutinous rice a purple or black color. However black and purple glutinous rice are distinct strains from white glutinous rice. Both black and white glutinous rice can be cooked as grains or ground into flour and cooked as a paste.

Nian gao
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