pounding it to a paste, or by making a dough
from sticky rice flour and kneading it for 30
minutes. The pounding or kneading organizes
the bushy amylopectin starch molecules into
an intermeshed mass that resists changes in its
structure.
Lao Chao Lao chao is a Chinese fermented
rice made from sticky rice. The rice is
steamed, cooled, made into small cakes with a
starter that includes the mold Aspergillus
oryzae (p. 755) and yeasts, and held at room
temperature for two to three days until it
becomes soft, sweet, and tart, with a fruity
and alcoholic aroma.
Wild Rice Wild rice is not a species of the
true tropical rice genus Oryza. It’s a distant
relative, a cool-climate water grass that
produces unusually long grains, to three-
quarters of an inch (2 cm), with a dark
seedcoat and a complex, distinctive flavor.
Zizania palustris is a native of the upper