Sticky rice balls, tapioca and jaggery
Sticky rice balls and tapioca in jaggery juice, a dish known as mote kyar si. (Hsu Myat)

This Myanmar dessert is another Thingyan favourite, a sweet treat to celebrate the Burmese New Year.

Known as mote kyar si, the dish includes mote lone ye paw—the sticky rice balls we showed you how to make in a previous recipe. In addition, I make juice from jaggery, although you can use coconut milk as an alternative, and throw some tapioca in there. Let’s get started.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Overall time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

1½ cup tapioca

150 grams jaggery

1 cup glutinous rice flour (sticky rice flour)

¼ cup rice flour

1 teaspoon salt

Shredded coconut

Instructions

1. Steep the tapioca in water for 30 minutes and then transfer it to the pot and boil it in two litres of water until it becomes transparent.

2. Time to make the jaggery juice. Put a pot on the stove and boil the jaggery in one litre of water and a little of salt until it melts. When all of the jaggery has melted, remove any unwanted lumps with a sieve.

3. Let’s make the sticky rice balls. Put the rice flour, glutinous rice flour, salt and water in a bowl and mix them all until it becomes doughy. Roll the balls by hand and boil them in a pot until they pop up to the surface. Get the balls and transfer them to cool water.

Serve the sticky balls, tapioca and jaggery in a bowl or cup with the shredded coconut.

 

 

Soe Naing Tun is a home cook who loves to prepare dishes for his family.