Recipe: Thai Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango
Thai Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango
This dessert was one of the best things that I ate in Thailand. Not the most complex by any means, or in any way challenging. For comfort, straight forward deliciousness and a dish that makes you feel brighter about life as you leave an empty plate behind, look no further.
I ate it many times in Thailand. I couldn’t resist it. However, I usually had to order it holding my nose with a lemon sucking face while trying not not barf, for it was almost always served from stalls that sold its vicious smelly neighbour durian.
DURIAN. Does anything smell more foul? Yes, rotten meat, cadavers and sewers but durian smells of all three. It is like a demon that has digested them and is burping it for your displeasure.
Walking down the streets of Bangkok admiring beautiful colours, delicious smelling street food, watching passing monks gilded in orange robes, I would suddenly feel squeamish and sure enough shortly after I would see a durian stand. Spiky green fruit, bloated and proud. If they were a cartoon character they would have an ill fitting suit with buttons popping from their shirts.
Now, I know you will say – BUT THE TASTE! And yes, I hear the taste is amazing, but I have a fierce sense of smell and even the mango sitting nearby has a lingering taste of durian. So I could not do it. Next time, I will force myself. With a clothes peg on my nose and a doggy bag.
I have gone off track. Back to sublime mango. Cheerful, bright and sweet. Coconut sticky rice is sold as a dessert in Thailand but for me, it makes a sublime breakfast. This really is best if you can soak the sticky rice overnight but don’t worry if not, it is still worth making it. Get a rich ripe mango dripping with syrupy sticky sweetness. Alphonso mangoes are in season, and are in the shops in Tooting now, that is what I am using.
Enjoy!
Note on the recipe: all ingredients are available in Thai shops, Chinatown in London (specifically New Loon Moon which also sells fresh young coconuts and every Thai ingredient I have ever needed for Thai cooking incl recent recipes). I also spied Thai sticky rice and palm sugar in my local Waitrose. It is best to make this when you are going to eat it as the rice is best just after it is cooked. It can soak up the coconut milk and get soggy over time too.
RECIPE: Thai Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango
Serves 2
Ingredients
100g Thai sticky rice
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 large mango, sliced with skin removed (or chopped – whatever is easiest)
160ml tin coconut cream (or a tin of coconut milk, using the thickest bit that settles)
1 tsp black sesame seeds
Method
Soak the sticky rice in water overnight in the fridge. Rinse before cooking thoroughly under the tap. (Rinse if you forgot to soak the rice also).
Cook the rice for 15 minutes in 150ml of water, adding more if you need to if it boils off. When the rice is cooked (it should still have bite), put a lid on the rice allowing it to soak up the remaining water.
Dissolve the palm sugar in 75 ml of the coconut cream, stirring it in cold. Add to the still warm sticky rice and leave to the side.
Reduce the remaining coconut cream by half over a medium heat.
Serve the coconut sticky rice with mango on the side, reduced coconut cream poured over the rice, and black sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
Enjoy!
Comments
I’m not the biggest lover of rice, but I think I’ve just been converted…
Poor rice. It gets a bad rep, but like everything, proper rice, grown with love and care is superb. Plus there are so many types of it!
This is lovely :) Enjoy.
I honestly don’t see how the taste could make up for the smell. Taste is mostly smell! And I am just not brave enough. Plus all the descriptions of the texture of durian put me off – I don’t like custard apple or papaya sort of textures. Sticky rice with mango, however, I LOVE. I’m so impressed with the ripeness of that mango.
Totally agree but everyone is so fierce in their description of the wonder of the flavour that it has to be tried. However, my sense of smell will mean I bawk before eating I am sure.
Enjoy the sticky rice! Alphonso mangoes are fabulous :)
would you class this as a dessert?
It is in the post ;) (and yes – it is a Thai dessert).
Love this desert. Have had it a lot in a Thai place I eat in. Delicious on many levels!
The ultimate comfort, swoonsome too :)
I was onced forced to eat durian dipped in shrimp paste. I broke out in a sweat. :-S
You have some of the whoopiest yup yup food in the Galaxy. Another great post.
Nice to know Mangoes are in season. Last year a small place on Brick Lane was doing 6 for a fiver.
Zaman Bros 17-19 Brick Lane, better than the big place on the other side. Some Mango on my blog.
http://doesthebellyrulethemind.wordpress.com/2012/07/
In Devon it should be interesting chasing them. Exeter perhaps, I don’t go there until a month’s time, I can’t wait that long. Perhaps Plymouth? Still on a mango trip, Gordon Ramsay’s mango porridge is worth getting up for.
Waitrose is defiantly better than its competitors, I bought palm sugar from Tesco’s once, what a rip off and Asian stores were the cheapest. I need some more Palm Sugar and some Indian Mango’s.
I do enjoy a sticky rice and equally so when accompanied by a classic mango pairing. I ,ove both versions with white and black rice too! If you’re a fan of these flavours, you might like the Chinese style Juk with coconut milk and crispy shallots and spring onion too? It’s very similar to how your prepare the sticky rice, only (with long grain,) boiled up with the milk and water and served with an array of spicy condiments!
This looks really good, i really enjoy mango so will have fun trying to replicate this over the weekend
Despite being told this is a ‘dish for tourists’ I can’t get enough Sweet Sticky Rice and Mango. It’s so so more-ish!
Despite being told this is a ‘dish for tourists’, I can not get enough of Sweet Sticky Rice and Mango. It’s so more-ish!
I don’t think that is true as it happens but it is true that it is delicious :)
Hello
I read your blog a few times and I absolutely like it! I admire the peaceful and healthy way you live, cook and eat. I also like your food-based travel stories because you appreciate all different cultures and all unusual eating-habits. You look like a real wanderer to me. When I found your blog on the internet, I noticed immediately the pleasant lay-out. It is not a mishmash of styles but a carefully, developed network of atmospheres and accents, such a lovely impression!
So I started reading more and it became nicer by every dish or meal that appeared on my computer screen. My craving began to grow because I really wanted to taste all these mouth-watering meals.
There were a lot of categories from which I could choose, for example vegan, vegetarian, BBQ, sweet treats, gluten free… I chose the category “sweet treats” because I love everything with sugar and I was sure I would find something that my heart desires. I know from myself that I can’t resist unhealthy treats like candy or a piece of chocolate and I also realize that isn’t good for me and my health. I did not found any unhealthy foodstuff on your blog, on the contrary it was all made from fresh fruit and other hale and healthy ingredients. This is the best evidence that sweet treats doesn’t always have to be overloaded with sugar.
The Thai coconut sticky rice with mango appealed the most to me because I really love Thai food and especially the sticky rice. It sounds weird to me to eat rice as a dessert, but that makes it even more a challenge. I think I would really love this treat and it will be worth trying.
I learned from your blog that the world has so much offer in terms of food. We have to appreciate each culture inclusive the rare traditions or the atypical way of living.
Well this is such a lovely comment – thank you! I am so pleased you are enjoying the recipes and stories. Enjoy the rice – it really is very good!