How to Puff Rice at Home

The same sticky rice used to make rice balls puffs when dried and fried.

Puffed rice breakfast cereal is similar to a Southeast Asian dish called toong mai. This dish once cooked rice in a wok in hot sand to puff it up, but modern iterations use oil to deep fry the rice. The many steps involved are all required to get the proper puff to the rice grains. Do not skip steps or substitute other types of rice for the sweet, sticky rice. The resulting puffed rice can be used in recipes as a substitute for the cereal or served as a snack.

Things You'll Need

• 1 cup sweet, sticky (glutinous) rice
• 1 cup water
• Steamer basket
• Cheesecloth
• Baking sheet
• Vegetable oil
• Cooking pot
• Frying thermometer
• Skimmer basket
• Paper towels

Instructions

1. Soak the rice in the water overnight. Drain any remaining water from the rice.

2. Line the steamer basket with cheesecloth and add the rice on top.

3. Arrange the steamer basket over a pot of boiling water so the water does not touch the bottom of the steamer basket.

4. Cover the pot and steam the rice for 40 minutes or until tender.

5. Spread the cooked rice onto a baking sheet in a single layer.

6. Dry the rice in the oven at the lowest temperature possible for 45 minutes to one hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

7. Leave the baking sheet in the oven with the oven off overnight.

8. Heat 2 inches of oil in the cooking pot to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Fill the skimmer basket with a small handful of the dried rice.

10. Lower the basket with the rice into the hot oil until the rice floats to the top of the oil in puffs.

11. Lift the basket out of the oil, removing the puffed rice with it.

12. Drain the rice on paper towels and cool completely before using.

References

• Hungry Browser; Toong Mai Puffed Rice; 10 April 2006
• She Bakes & She Cooks; Hainanese Rice Crisps; 15 January 2006
• Honolulu Star-Bulletin; pop!; Betty Shimabukuro; 21 January 2004