Black rice pudding with mango

Sticky rice with fresh mango is a favourite dessert in any Thai restaurant. This is a wonderful dessert that combines sweetened sticky rice with fresh fruit. We have upscaled this recipe and moved it away from the ordinary.

Black rice is an excellent grain with a lovely earthy flavour. The earthy ice in this dessert is drenched in a wonderful sauce of creamy coconut and an organic sweetness from the palm jaggery. The fresh mango on top adds freshness to the dessert, which makes this dish sublime. This step away from the regular white glutinous rice and the addition of the sweet coconut sauce upscale this recipe and make it divine. There is no going back to the regular dessert after you have had this version.

This was the first cookbook I bought by Naomi Daguid, and I was immediately transported to wonderful meals at small tables across Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. A wonderful collection of recipes in a beautiful, coffee-table cookbook—mine stays in the kitchen! There are tons of recipes to explore and lots of anecdotes and stories to tie the cuisine to the land and culture. It's one of my favorite cookbooks!

For more wonderful recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

1 cup black rice or red rice

3 1/2 cups water

2 cups coconut milk

3/4 cup palm sugar, jaggery, or brown sugar

A pinch if salt

Mangoes peeled and cubed.

Fried shallots (optional)

Cook the rice in the water for almost 45-50 minutes, depending on the variety of rice you are using. You want the rice to have a bite but be cooked all the way through.

While the rice is cooking, heat the coconut milk, palm sugar, and salt on a low flame till the sugar is completely melted. Simmer very gently for 1 minute, stirring continuously so the sauce does not curdle. Set aside.

Drain the water if needed when the rice is cooked, but you should not have to. Add half the sweetened coconut milk, keeping the rest to serve. Cook the rice until the coconut milk has been completely absorbed by the rice and it has turned soft and sticky.

To serve, add 1/2 cup of the cooked rice on a plate. Top with the chopped mango. Drizzle some additional coconut sauce on top or around the rice. Serve.