Nyob Zoo Foodies!
Mov txuam puab: Wrapped boiled sticky rice. A great snack, amazing with beef jerky or grilled meat, and very convenient for a road trip. Yes, it’s basically just sticky rice cooked inside any edible leaf. Today, I’m having my Tais (Maternal grandma) from Thailand show you all how to make it. I grew up eating these with my grandparents since they love eating it a lot. So I’d thought it would be nice to show you all how my grandma makes it. So give it a try and let me know what you like to eat it with if you’ve ever had it.
Happy Cooking!
Main Ingredients
Sticky Rice
Any kind of sticky rice works. But I recommend using short grain sticky rice or also known as short grain sweet rice
Edible leaf
You can use banana leaves, bamboo leaves, etc. My grandma used what we like to call Nplooj Ntse or also known as Dong Leaves (Lá Dong), or Stachyphrynium placentarium. 
Add about 1/4- 1/3 cups of sticky rice. Rinsing the rice is optional. Both my grandmas never washed the rice before adding into the leaves because they said it affected the texture and how it would cook. By all means, rinse the rice to your desire.
Fill, fold, wrap, and seal
You can use any cooking twine/ string to tie it together
Place & stack all together in a pot and fill it with water
Boil until the rice is soften (around 1 hr-1.5hrs)
And enjoy as is or with your favorite protein. 
Happy Cooking!
-Cindy Her (C.HerCreations)
Ingredients
- 15-20 Fresh banana leaves/Dong Leaves/ Bamboo leaves (your choices)
- 1/4 cup short grain sticky rice per leaf (you'll need to add more rice if you end up cutting the leaf bigger etc) DO NOT SOAK or RINSE the rice. Use it dry as is.
- 4-6 quarts of water or enough to cover all the wraps ( with at least 2 inches overhead to throughly cook the rice)
- Strings or cooking twine
Instructions
1) If you are using fresh banana leaf, lay the leaves out in the sun for a good 5-10 minutes to soften it. Then cut them to the right size, rinse them and pat them dry before using. If you're using frozen banana leaf, let it thaw and lay it in the sun for 10-15 minutes to soften it. OR you can rinse it well, cut them to the right size and flip it every second over a flame until it starts to soften and be more flexible to work with. If you have or find fresh La dong leaves, make sure to rinse/wipe them well before using. Trim off any harder bottom stems if needed. If you're using bamboo leaves, make sure to soak them so they are more flexible to work with.
2) Get your twine or strings ready to wrap the rice. You can also untwine a sticky rice bag and used that to twine up the rice in the leaf. Cooking twine works too.
3) For each leaf, add at least 1/4 cup of short grain sticky rice in the center and start folding the banana leaf starting from the top and bottom to the center. Then take the ends and fold it in. You should end up having a 4 inch long wrap (it may be longer it may be shorter depending on the banana leaf. If you have bigger banana leaves, you'll have to add double the rice and make them extra long. Then start wrapping the string or twine around the wrap. Make sure to wrap it loosely to allow room for the rice to expand. Tie it up and repeat until all the banana leaves are used up.
4) Fill your pot with water and add in the rice wraps. At this point the water should start finding its way inside the wraps. Cover with a lid and let it boil for at least 1 hr- 1.5 hrs or more depending on the size/ amount of rice used. If you end up making giant ones, you'll have to cook it for at least 2-3 hrs and add more water as you go to throughly cook it all the way through.
5) After 1- 2 hrs, take one out to see if it's cooked throughly. If not, cook it longer (just make sure you have water to boil it longer). Once cooked, let it cool completely before consuming. Cooling it allows the rice to have a nice chewy texture. If you eat it hot, it can be very sticky.
