This summer my rice paste has been much easier to mash right out of the steamer, and I had wondered if my senses were fooling me or if in fact there was some hidden reason it felt that way. Last spring I bought some Thai glutinous rice flour at a local grocery that I thought would be a reasonable substitute for the sweet rice flour I usually buy (Mochiko), since they didn’t stock it. (Mochiko is recommended by John Marshall.) Today I went to Kim’s Oriental market on nearby Snelling Avenue because I knew they carried Mochiko. This afternoon I made rice paste with it, and found the paste was back to it’s tough, resistant, arm-strengthening character, which led me to compare the labels of the two products. Lo and behold, I had an “aha” moment. Below are the two products I now have experience with, along with a completed batch of rice paste resist made with Mochiko. I’ll keep it until tomorrow, so I cover the top with a bit of water so it doesn’t dry out. (Rice paste resist has this neat quality of simultaneously resisting water — for a time — and of being water soluble.)
Rice flours with completed paste
A light bulb went on today when the clerk at Kim’s answered my inquiry, “Where can I find the sweet rice flour ?” with, “so you want the dry kind?” I remembered observing that water was included on the ingredient list of the Thai product, yet since it looked and felt the same to me, I thought it would behave the same in the rice paste recipe. With experience, however, I’ve observed that it mashes much easier and breaks down more quickly when I store it for a several days in the frig with the layer of water on top — it seems to get softer (too soft) more quickly, and the water is more cloudy when I pour it off before using the paste.
The Thai product - note WATER in the ingredient list
Perhaps this is more than you want to know about rice paste resist, but I found this whole experience enlightening!
Mochiko - note NO water, simply sweet rice
So, which is your preference? The Mochiko? I found some at an Asian store once. My local grocery carries that same Thai stuff you pictured. When I took a class this spring with Akemi Nakano Cohn we used the Thai stuff, and she was happy with it and recommended it to us. The recipe is slightly different from the one on John Marshalls site, though.
Hi Mandi – I think I prefer the Mochiko for my purposes but I really think experimentation helps you find what works for you. I took a paste resist class at the Textile Center locally several years ago, and the instructor, Candy Kuehn, is very creative and experimental in her approach. She brought a bag full of various starches she bought at our local United Noodle Company, and we cooked/mixed all of them, used thermofax screens, put dyes in the pastes, etc, It was great fun.