Festive Mango Sticky Rice

My take on the traditional Thai mango sticky rice. The classic recipe, but with a presentation deflecting from the modest and unpretentious staple street food that you find in this Asian country that sometimes feels like one large market, brimming with food stalls.

Ingredients

- 500 g (~2.6 cups) glutinous rice

- 400 mL (~1.7 cups) coconut cream (I recommend Savoy or Aroy-D)

- 75 g (~0.4 cups) cane sugar

- salt

- 1 honey mango

- 1 mini honey mango*

- toasted black sesame seeds, to top

- 100 mL (~0.4 cups) coconut cream, to top (optional)

- toasted mung beans/dessicated coconut/mint, to top (optional)

Note: If you invest in something in this recipe, make it the mango and the coconut cream. They're key to a good mango sticky rice. DON'T substitute the coconut cream for low-fat coconut cream or low-fat coconut milk; it's healthier but the result will be much less tasty.

* If you can't find mini mangoes, substitute for another honey mango

Recipe

1. Submerge the rice in water for 2-5 minutes then drain the water. Repeat until the water is no longer milky. This removes the starch covering the grains. Soak the rice for six hours or overnight.

2. Drain and steam the rice using a steamer/saucepan and steam basket/traditional basket steamer for about 15 minutes.

3. Add the coconut cream to a saucepan on medium-high heat and stir in one direction only to prevent curdling, until simmering.

4. Immediately add sugar and 1 tsp salt. Keep stirring until sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil. Turn off the heat.

5. Scoop the hot rice into a bowl and gradually, slowly and delicately incorporate spoonfuls of the mixture into the rice, making sure it doesn't become mushy. The rice should be shiny, a little sweet, very coconut-rich and a little salty.

6. Peel the honey mango and slice length-wise on each side of the pit, then slice thinly width-wise. Slice the mini honey mango length-wise on each side of pit, leaving the peel on, slice width- and length-wise up to the skin with the cut side up to create squares, being careful not to slice through the skin then reverse the mango by pushing on the skin to make the squares pop out.*

7. If you have more coconut cream, add 100 mL to a saucepan with a pinch of salt and bring to a simmer.

8. Lay a spoonful of rice on a plate, pour over the additional coconut cream, arrange the mango slices on top and place a reversed mini mango on the side. Top with sesame seeds/desiccated coconut/mung beans/mint. Serve immediately.

You can keep the rice in the fridge but it is infinitely better served straightaway. If you do, store in a container to prevent the rice from drying out.

*If you don't have the mini mangoes you can still cut them like this but if you think it looks too large on a plate you can slice the cubes off the skin and arrange them on the plate with some of the first mangoes thin slices.