I learned about this dish in 1988, when we went to Thailand as a Summit group to help out Christian missionaries build houses. In the month there, we learned a lot about Thai culture, the language and the cuisine.
This mango sticky rice was the favourite among my team mates and I remember it to this day. I used to make it by estimation. But today, I got a Thai chef to impart the little secrets to me.
So here’s the traditional way of making this superb dessert dish. I learned it with my daughter today, so the smooth hands you see belong to her.
Steaming the glutinous rice in a traditional rice steamer. The finished rice should be transparent but not really edible, in that it should be hard still.
Traditional rice steamer
This contraption is great for scrapping coconut to make juice out of.
scrapper
scrapping coconut
Massage 1 cup of water into shavings of 1 coconut. Then, squeeze every bit of milk you can get. Use a sieve or muslin cloth to catch the residue.
coconut juicing
Daughter coconut juicing
Cook the coconut with sugar and half the salt. Then use 3/4 of the mixture to soak the cooked rice.
cook coconut
soak rice with coconut mixture
Add the remaining salt to the rest of the coconut, add corn starch solution to thicken and make the coconut creme.
thickened coconut
And that’s it!
Mango Sticky Rice (Kao Niao Mamuang)
Ingredients
- 1 kg Sticky rice glutinous rice
- 450 g coconut milk
- 250 g sugar
- 11/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp rice or corn flour
- 4-5 pandan leaves
- 2-3 Mango ripe
- 1 tsp Roasted Mung Bean
Instructions
- Wash sticky rice until water runs clear, then soak for 4-6 hours or overnight.
- Boil water in steamer on medium-high heat, drain and place sieve cloth with sticky rice in steamer, place 2 pandan leaves on top.
- Steam about 30-45 minutes or until rice is cooked (grains will look transparent).
- Boil the coconut milk with the sugar and half the salt. Remove when coconut boils.
- Pour 3/4 of the coconut milk over the sticky rice and let it set for 20 minutes.
- Dissolve the corn/rice flour with a tablespoon of water.
- Reheat the rest of the coconut milk, and add the remaining salt. Pour the corn/rice flour mixture into the liquid and cook until the mixture thickens.
- Serve the dessert with sliced mangos, some sticky rice and top that with the coconut cream and roasted mung bean.
