When you make instant rice at home, all you’re really doing is rehydrating the grains and heating them back up again. The whole process is pretty quicktypically under 10 minutes.

When cooked in a rice cooker or boiled, it tends to clump together." Once the sticky rice is done, which may take 30 to 45 minutes, you can serve it as a side dish for just about anything.

Clockwise from left: Eight treasures sticky rice, vegetable and mushroom spring rolls, and red braised pork belly with eggs from The Woks of Life. Photo by Sarah Leung and Kaitlin Leung ...