Mango Sticky Rice – Thai-style Dessert!

October 2, 2011 § Leave a comment

Happy October everyone!

Back with a vengeance, and starting it off is a delicious Thai dessert – Mango Sticky Rice, or Kow Neuw Mamuang. This is one of those dishes that I always saw on my local Thai restaurant’s menu, but never really got a chance to try. Finally, one extremely hungry day, I ordered my noodles and this dessert and I am so glad I did because it is SO good.

It’s not too sweet, very fresh and light, and overall super satisfying. I looked up some recipes online and decided it didn’t look TOO challenging to try at home, and it definitely wasn’t.  I highly encourage you to try this, this is a really beautiful dish and has a lovely presentation (perfect for those dinner parties!).

Though this is super simple, it does require some planning because you need to soak the sweet rice in water overnight to get that perfect chewy texture when it comes time to assemble the dish.  Other than that, it takes about thirty minutes to prepare the rest of the dessert.

Notes:

1. Depending on how sweet your mangoes are, adjust your sugar level to your likening.  I don’t like overly-sweet desserts so a little less than 1/4 cup was perfect for my tastes.

2. You must use glutinous sticky rice, you cannot use regular rice with a lot of water.

Mango Sticky Rice

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups sticky rice (I used short-grain, you can use any type of glutinous rice for this)
  • 1 13.5 ounce can of unsweetened coconut milk
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 ripe mangoes

Directions

  1. Rinse the rice a few times and soak it in water, overnight. In a bind, you can probably get away with soaking for at least one hour, but steaming for much longer.
  2. Rinse the rice one last time and drain carefully. Place in a steamer lined with a cheesecloth and steam for 20-25 minutes.
  3. While the rice is steaming, stir one cup of coconut milk and 1/4 cup of sugar and salt together in a small pot, on low heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Turn off the heat.
  4. Once the rice is finished, taste to see if it is chewy and to your liking. If it is undercooked, it will taste crispy and gross. Transfer to a large bowl that has a lid.
  5. Pour the sweetened coconut milk mixture into the bowl with the rice and mix well so that all the rice is coated. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes for the rice to soak up the milk.
  6. With the remaining coconut milk, heat on a low simmer with two tablespoons of sugar until the liquid evaporates by one half.
  7. Peel mangoes carefully and cut into two big halves. Slice each half very thinly, around 2-3 mL thick so that you can make cool shapes with it easily when you plate.
  8. Using a small custard mold, pour a tablespoon of the sauce into it and coat the inside, then pour out the remaining sauce. Add a few tablespoons of rice to the mold and pack it in, and then carefully transfer the mold of rice onto your serving plate.  Then, add your mangoes in any shape you’d like!
  9. Enjoy!

Coconut Sweet-Rice Cupcakes (I promise you’ll like these even if you hate coconut)

March 17, 2011 § 10 Comments

I am loving the hell outta three things right now.

1. Jeff Bridges (Tron – 1982, The Big Lebowski – 1998, True Grit – 2010)

2. Mochiko Sweet Rice Flour

3. Echo Lake Dog Park

I am not loving:

1. Red Meat (self-inflicted torture, I gave this up for Lent)

I was recently reminded that I had originally promised “other adventures” other than culinary, so here is a somewhat-humorous video of Bogart (my dog) getting in trouble at the afore-mentioned dog park.  I can’t remember why I got so tiger-mom on him this time, but I assure you it must have been a good reason.  I especially love the end of the video…hahaha 😉 (c) intellectual property of d&d master shiny shoes sehoon

On to my next current addiction…mochi-cupcakes.  Sorry for the influx of mochi-inspired sweets…I promise this will be the last for a while…  The recipe I tried for the blueberry mochi cupcakes was indeed delicious, so I was so curious to try out different mochiko-recipes. I diddled around and found a Sweet-Rice Flour Coconut Cake, which sounded like it could be promising.  I made some modifications, and ended up with something really phenomenal, even better (daresay) than the blueberry recipe. The original recipe called for FIVE eggs (that’s kinda crazy) and 2.5 cups of sugar (even my sweet-tooth can’t handle that jazz), so I reduced an egg and half a cup of sugar and it was perfect. Also, I am a big fan of using cupcake pans because I think it’s less messy and easier to enjoy, one cupcake serving at a time.  And you get more of the amazing crunchy-edge-to-moist-inside ratio. hehe

Now the dilemma about the coconut milk…

I have never bought unsweetened coconut milk for cooking purposes.  I didn’t think this would be an issue until I got to the grocery store and noticed that there is a different type of coconut milk, oil, cream, basically anything that you can think of using coconut, in SEVERAL different aisles.  I took a wild guess and chose the coconut cans in the Thai-aisle, which I think was the right choice.  Even there, they had at least 6-7 different brands of the SAME THING, so I chose two different ones that I’ve posted below that were relatively similar.  I tasted both and noticed many differences in texture and flavor, so I got a little worried that the combination of both would make for a weird-tasting cake.  But the mixture turned out to be awesome so I would probably get these two different ones again!  The Chaokoh-brand was much thicker and creamier, whereas the Mount Tai-brand was more watery and a little more fresh-tasting.

I’m not the biggest fan of coconut-flavored things, but I have to say, the coconut flavor was almost completely masked/subtle in this cake. It was just another layer of depth and that “hmm…what is that flavor?”-something-special. I am a FAN!

Here is the recipe:

Sweet Rice-Flour and Coconut Cupcakes

Adapted generously from The Food of Paradise by Rachel Laudan

  • 1 box of mochiko flour (1 lb)
  • 2  cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 (14-oz) cans unsweetened coconut milk (not low-fat)
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Whisk together mochiko, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together coconut milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla in another bowl. Add coconut mixture to flour mixture, whisking until batter is combined.

Pour batter into buttered cupcake pans, makes 24 cupcakes. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is golden and the sides begin to pull slightly from the pan.  Cool, and then enjoy!

Mochi keeps, covered and chilled, 3 days.

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