Mango Sticky Rice – Thai Coconut Rice with Mango
AsianDessertsfruitycreamycomfort food
11g protein
Recipe by Nikoleta · @surovadcerka
Sticky rice is steamed, not boiled, and that single fact is what most versions of this dessert get wrong. The grains soak overnight, get rinsed until the water runs clear, and then cook in a sieve suspended over boiling water with a cloth over the top to trap the steam. Boiling them in water gives you porridge.
There are two coconut sauces, not one. The bulk of it — coconut milk, sweetener, pandan, salt — is stirred through the hot rice and absorbed completely. A smaller portion is thickened with cornstarch and deliberately salted a little harder, then spooned over at the table. That salty-sweet contrast is the whole dish.
Plan around the soak: four hours minimum, overnight is better. Serve with ripe mango and sesame seeds.
Ingredients
rice
- 180 g sticky rice (or sushi rice or arborio rice)
- 3 pandan leaves
sauce
- 400 g coconut milk
- 50 g sweetener (caster sugar, brown sugar, or agave syrup)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cornstarch or tapioca flour
topping
- 1 ripe mango
- sesame seeds, pan-fried
Contains: sesame
How to make it
- Pour cold water over the rice and let it soak overnight, or at least 4 hours.
- Place the rice in a strainer that fits into a pot, immerse it in water, and mix by hand to wash out the starch.
- Fill a pot that accommodates your strainer about halfway with water and bring to a boil with the lid on.
- Once the water is boiling, place a sieve into the pot—it will now act as a steamer for the rice. Cover the top of the pot and sieve with a cloth to keep the steam inside, and place a lid on top of the cloth.
- Let the rice steam like this until it becomes tender. You can add a pandan leaf to give it a wonderful aroma. When I used arborio rice soaked overnight, steaming took only 10 minutes. However, other types of rice may require 30–40 minutes. The result should be soft rice, as if it had been boiled.
- Mix the coconut milk, sweetener, two pandan leaves, and salt. Heat the sauce and bring it to a boil so that all ingredients combine and the sugar melts, then turn off the heat.
- Take about 150 g of the sauce, mix in cornstarch, and heat it in a small pot to create a thicker sauce. You can add a pinch of salt – this sauce is usually a bit saltier in Thailand and enhances the flavor of the rice beautifully.
- Once the rice is steamed, pour it all into the sauce and stir (remove the pandan leaves). There’s no need to heat anything further – keep the heat off. Stir until the coconut milk is fully absorbed into the rice.
- Serve the coconut rice porridge with sliced ripe mango, drizzled with the thickened coconut sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds.
Nutrition
870Calories
11 gProtein
116 gCarbs
43 gFat
3 gFiber
per serving
