Easy and delicious Thai Mango Rice Pudding

Mango Sticky Rice has got to be one of my favourite summer desserts. I feel in love with this amazing dessert 9 years ago when we had gone on a trip to Thailand. I had not heard of this dessert before and saw it being sold everywhere, from street vendors to menus of every restaurant we went to. It was love at first site and in first bite! We had one every single day of our holiday there and somedays even two!

Back home we still craved this refreshing and flavourful dessert. So I searched for a recipe and made it at home for the first time. And I have been making it every single summer since. My family has shown equal love to this dessert, if not more. But sticky rice is not very readily available in all parts of India and it can be pretty expensive too. So I wanted to come up with a recipe of making it with rice verities more common here. My mum is very excited for this recipe and has been waiting for me to post the video. She loves Mango Sticky Rice so much, even though she has never been to Thailand and she isn’t one who likes experimenting with different cuisines either. She says now she’ll be able to make it for herself and not have to wait to meet me to have it!

This dessert is naturally Vegan and Gluten-free. Like most Thai desserts, this dessert incorporates a beautiful balance between sweet and salty. Not overly sweet, beautiful notes of saltiness and very refreshing. Flavours of coconut with juiciness of Mangoes. What more do you need in a summer dessert?!

First things first, what is Mango Sticky Rice?

This dessert has three components. A delicious sticky rice flavoured with coconut milk. Sweet with a hint of saltiness. The second is a salted coconut sauce. Slightly thick and salty, to balance the sweetness of the rice. The third is obviously some fresh and juicy ripe mangoes!

How is this recipe different?

This recipe uses regular variety of rice. Any common variety of rice will work here. I will recommend to use a variety that is aromatic and that you would normally use to make Kheer / Payasam / Rice pudding. I have used Govind Bhog rice here.

The method to cook the rice and infusing the flavours of coconut milk is different in this recipe than a regular Mango Sticky rice recipe. The measurements are also slightly different too. Sticky rice is cooked differently for making this dessert.

But even though the variety of rice is different and it is cooked differently from sticky rice, the flavours are the same and this dessert is equally flavourful as the original version!

And since this recipe doesn’t use sticky rice, calling it Mango Sticky Rice would not be fair, isn’t it? So I am calling it Thai Mango Rice Pudding instead.

All the other elements remain similar.

Here is the detailed recipe:

Thai Mango Rice Pudding

Serves: 6 Prep Time: 1 hr Cooking Time: 40 mins 40 mins

Rating: 5.0/5

( 1 voted )

Pin

Print

Ingredients

For Rice Pudding -

1. 1/2 cup - Raw Rice
2. 1/2 cup - Coconut Milk 
3. 1/2 cup - Water
4. 1/4 tsp - Salt
5. 1/4 cup - Raw Sugar

For Coconut Sauce -

1. 1/2 cup - Coconut Milk
2. 1/4 tsp - Salt
3. 1 tsp - Rice flour
4. 1 tbsp - Raw Sugar
5. 2 tbsp - Water

Others -

1. 1 tsp - Toasted sesame seeds
2. 2-3 Mangoes

Instructions

https://youtu.be/vRQNR67vqWM

For Rice Pudding -

1. Wash the rice thoroughly with water, drain the rice and soak it in some clean water for 30 mins to 1hr.
2. Drain the rice and add it to a heavy bottom pan along with the coconut milk, water, salt and 1 tbsp raw sugar.
3. Give it a mix and place the pan on medium heat. Let this come to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with a lid and let the rice cook until it has absorbed all the water.
4. Once the rice has absorbed all the water, check a few grains of rice to make sure that it is cooked through. If not, add 1/4 cup more liquid. This will be a mix of 1/8 cup water and 1/8 cup coconut milk. Place the lid again and let the rice cook further.
5. Once all the moisture is absorbed, check a few grains of rice again. You may need 1/4 cup more liquid (equal parts water and coconut milk) again, depending on your rice.
6. Once the rice is completely cooked, switch off the heat, sprinkle the remaining sugar all around the pan and cover the once again for 10 minutes.
7. This will let the sugar melt and will help the rice to set.
8. After 10-15 minutes, gently mix the rice so all the sugar is evenly mixed through. Our rice is done!
9. Let it cool to room temperature.

For Coconut Sauce -

1. Take the rice flour and water in a pan. Give it a mix so the rice flour is evenly mixed.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, give it a mix and place the pan on medium heat.
3. Let this mixture come to boil. Stir it continuously.
4. Once it comes to a boil, switch off the heat and let the sauce cool to room temperature.

Plating - 

1. Grease a bowl lightly, roughly 1/4 cup in size. Add the cooled rice and press firmly.
2. Flip the bowl on a clean plate or bowl, give it a slight shake and the rice should un-mould easily.
3. You can just scoop some rice on the plate too.
4. Drizzle some salted coconut sauce on top of the rice.
5. Peal and slice some fresh ripe mangoes and place some next to the rice.
6. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds on top and enjoy

Notes

1. Use Raw rice to make this dessert. Any fragrant variety of rice will work best.
2. Different rice varieties absorb different amounts of water. The amount of water needed to cook the rice may also depend on the age of rice (how new or old the rice is). Start with double the quantity of liquid to rice. Once rice has absorbed this much liquid, check and if needed, add 1/4 cups more liquid and let the rice cook further. Repeat this step once more if needed.
3. You can cook the rice to the level of done-ness you prefer.
4. Add only a little bit of sweetener in the beginning. Adding all the sugar initially may hinder the cooking of rice.
5. This dessert has a nice balance of sweetness with some saltiness. The rice is sweet, with a hint of salt. But the coconut sauce has to taste salty and a little sweet just to balance the salt.
6. Choose sweet variety of mangoes that you enjoy eating. It makes all the difference in this dessert.
7. The rice is often topped with toasted and salted moong dal for some crunch. You can also use toasted sesame seeds.

Did You Make This Recipe?

Have you made this recipe? Tag me on Instagram at @VanillaTrails and use the hashtag #MadeWithVanillaTrails.