Sticky rice with mangoes and coconut milk seems so simple - rice topped with sweetened coconut milk and chunks of fresh fruit. And yet, each time I tried to make the dish at home, the result was nothing like the dessert I'd eaten in Thai restaurants.This weekend, I tried again, using a recipe created by Rachael Rappaport of Coconut and Lime. And, this time, I finally got the flavor and texture I'd been hoping for.
The secret to the dish is the rice. As I learned in my prior failed attempts, jasmine or basmati rice won't do. Instead, the recipe uses "sticky rice" (also known as "glutenous rice" or "sweet rice"), which can be found in Asian markets. (I bought mine at the H Mart in Aurora.)Once I located right recipe, and found the sticky rice, the dish came together easily. The recipe does require a little time, because the rice needs to be soaked for one hour before it is cooked, but I worked on other projects while the rice was soaking. The only difficult part of the process was restraining myself from drinking the sweetened coconut milk before it was combined with the rice.
If you can't find good mangoes, I think the sweetened rice would also be good with fresh peaches or nectarines.
