Sticky Rice as Finger Food

One of the challenges I have encountered in my work with texture modified diets is simple cooked rice, the staple cereal food for millions of people. Unless eaten as a thick rice pudding it tends to separate in the mouth and requires multiple chews to enable safe swallowing. My successful efforts so far have been with a Congee rice, a traditional easy to eat and swallow meal from Chinese cuisine and a fish kedgeree (smoked fish, rice and egg in a white sauce) that originated in India.

Imagine my surprise when I had a visit from a friend from Thailand who described rice eaten by small children from the age of 1 year called sticky or glutinous rice.

My understanding is that toddlers of one year tend to eat meals that can be cut into pieces <0.5cm and served in a thick sauce i.e. minced and moist texture.

Cooked sticky rice is soft and moist, easily forming a ball, lumps can be broken up in the mouth with the tongue, as opposed to needing the teeth and the lumps in the food are soft within a cohesive consistency product.
Sticky rice is available in Australia as part of the SUNRICE^® range and the cooking instructions on the packet are easy to follow. I will not pretend that the product is as good as the traditional steamer version with bamboo that imparts a particular flavour, but it is good enough.

The traditional Thai way is to serve it for the child to eat with their fingers and wrap small pieces of meat around a portion to pick up. Obviously for a minced and moist standard the meat/fish would need to be very soft and cut very thinly.

As a finger food I believe it would be a useful addition to a nursing home menu particularly for an Asian population who love their rice. Finger bowls would be used under supervision for any finger food version.

The chemistry of the rice is such that it digests easily, being an amylose chain that starts digestion in the mouth and is completed in the small intestine. It has a high glycaemic index if served alone but as part of a meal of meat and vegetables this would be lowered.

Finger Food Sticky Rice with Shaved Ham or Smoked Salmon

If you found these recipes useful, and want to find out more about novel recipes for Dysphagia Diets, try one my books - either A Kitchen Manual for Preparation of Modified Texture Diets (2nd Edition) or Super Foods for Small Appetites - Home Based Modified Texture Diets