Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango

The first thing I will say is that this recipe does not fit in with my usual cooking style & the food that I usually share on this blog for two reasons, it has loads of sugar in it & it is made of rice. In saying that I am in Thailand & I am excited about what I learnt at Thai cooking school & want to share it with you. Also since I am here in Chiang Mai I will enjoy a few Thai treats & this one is a pretty good one to break the rules for!

I have tried to make this at home & not with much success, I must say. Now that I have been to Thai cooking school I understand where I went wrong, it is simple, it’s all about the rice itself. There is actually a type of rice that is called sticky rice & it takes special preparation. You can not create this recipe with normal rice, the rice simply will not be sticky. The other ingredient that you may not have on hand is palm sugar, however you can use brown sugar as a substitute. So if you want to make this dish you will have to take a visit to your Asian grocery store.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of sticky rice – soak rice in water over night or for a minimum of 5 hours
1 cup coconut cream
2 tablespoons of palm sugar
2 pinches of salt
Fresh or canned mango

DIRECTIONS

1.  Drain the rice & place in a steamer that goes on top of a pot. Steam over hot water with lit on for 20 minutes
2.  In a pot while the rice is cooking place the coconut cream & sugar in a pot over a medium heat & simmer
3. Stir the coconut cream to make sure the sugar is dissolved & does not burn
4. Add the pinch of salt to coconut cream mixture
5. Once the sugar is dissolved place the cooked rice into the coconut milk & stir until all the liquid is soaked into the rice
6. Cover & let stand for about 1/2 hour
7. Serve with sliced mango & a sprinkle of sesame seeds
8. Enjoy!

You will notice that in the picture my rice looks a bit purple/grey. That is because for fun at the Thai cooking school the tutor showed us how the Thai’s make natural food colouring out of pea flowers. The pea flower is soaked in water & then added to foods to give it a nice colour, it has no flavour so works perfectly just as a food colouring. If you cook the recipe above your rice will look creamy white.