Sticky Rice With Mango Sushi; Cheater's Version

Intro: Sticky Rice With Mango Sushi; Cheater's Version

Once at a Thai restaurant, I had "Sticky Rice with Mango" as a desert. This is a special rice, sweetened and flavored with coconut, served with fresh mango. Now, I'm not particularly fond of rice pudding (which this vaguely resembles), or coconut, or mango, but this was GOOD!

So I looked up a recipe. This is the bay area; I didn't have any trouble finding the special rice, or the coconut milk. But the cooking was ... complex. The sticky rice is supposed to be soaked, and then steamed (with actual steam, not like "steamed rice") It didn't come out very well...

So several years went by, and I started experimenting with Sushi. And I had an idea on how to CHEAT making sticky rice with mango...

STEP 1: Ingredients

You'll need:

Short grain (sushi) rice. You should be able to find this anywhere.
Coconut cream. Yeah, the kind you get at a liquor store for Pinå Coladas.
Dried mango (or fresh, but that wouldn't be cheating as much!) This has been appearing in upscale gormet markets and such.
Rice Paper (optional). For the outer covering of your sushi, if you want. I've only ever seen this in Asian markets, so it may be hard to find.

STEP 2: Prepare the Mango.

Slice the dried mango into pretty thin slices. Wet them an let them sit in a cup to hydrate slightly,
while the rice is cooking.

STEP 3: Cook the Rice

Rinse the rice and put in a saucepan with an equal volume of water and 1/4 the volume of coconut cream. For example, 1/2 C wet rice, 1/2 C water, and 1oz Coconut cream makes about two rolls worth, and is a good size for a trial (although it's a bit tricky to cook such a small amount of rice.)

Cook as for normal steamed rice: bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low heat till the liquid is all absorbed (about 15 minutes.) Remove from heat and allow to cool at least until it can be handled without burning you.

You can refrigerate the rice for some time, but you may need to warm it slightly to get it to an appropriate consistancy to mold into sushi or ball shapes.

STEP 4: Make Sushi!

This isn't an instructable in how to roll up sushi, and I'm not very good at it anyway. Arrange a thin rectangle of rice on a sushi mat, piece of rice paper, or piece of saran wrap. Lay out the strips of hydrated mango (or sliced fresh mango) in a line down the middle of the rice, and roll the rice around it. Of course, real sushi is a work of art, but you don't have to achieve "art" status to have something that's yummi to eat.

Or, just arange to get pieces of mango inside clumps of rice, "rice ball" style. There's already a nice Rice Ball Instructable

Refrigerate till near serving time. No raw fish, no meat, it should keep quite a while...

STEP 5: Serve!

Slice the sushi rolls, arrange attractively, allow to warm up a bit (I think it should be "cellar temperature"; just a bit below room temp) and serve.

Comments

[hedstrom]

I saw it in a restaurant yesterday and since then Ibrowse all the Internet looking for it, thanks :)

[Goodhart]

Very nice. I am not sure I would want to take the time anymore to do this one, but it doesn't look as difficult as I first thought it might be.

[container_gardener]

Interesting idea. Instead of calrose/ short grain rice, you could also use sweet rice, aka glutionous rice. We have a similar dessert in Filipino culture, except the rice is wrapped into little packages made of banana leaves, then steamed. We use the glutinous rice. You can find it in Asian stores.

[westfw]

My understanding is that glutinous rice is considerably harder to make, since it apparently really needs to be steamed, rather than the rather odd process we usually use to make "steamed rice." I'll have to try Susie's method; I've got a big bag of of the stuff and my other attempts to do something with it have been pretty inedible. (now, the time I tried steaming it in a strainer and all, I thought I sort of got the rice done right, but I couldn't get it to absorb any/much of the coconut milk as I thought it should.)

[container_gardener]

Glutinous rice isn't really difficult to make. Many of the Filipino glutinous rice recipes require you to soak the rice for a few hours, preferably overnight.

[susie]

I just made some great sticky rice without a steamer. 1. soak the sticky rice for a few hours or a day. 2. put an inch of water in a deep pot, then place a trivet in the pot (I used a round cookie cooker rack) 3. drain the rice then put it in a bowl that will fit in the pot. Boil it and it will steam pretty quickly. I did this with 4 c rice and it was ready in like 15 min. Very cool! To make the sticky rice with mango you get "dessert quality" coconut milk which has a lot of cream in it then mix that with sugar to taste. You mix that in the steamed rice and let it sit 30-60 minutes. yum.

[container_gardener]

I agree with you, susie. It would be better to use the coconut milk, which you can find in the international section of the grocery store. Coconut milk is better suited for cooking, while coconut cream is better for mixed drinks. Hope this helps.

[organizm987]

where was the Thai restaurant?

[westfw]

Montery, CA. Don't recall the name.

[westfw]

I added this to the cooking contest group. I don't think it's actually eligible (having been submitted WAY too soon), but I do think it's a reasonable example of the sort of thing that should be in the contest.

[Weissensteinburg]

It's a perfect example of things that should be in the group! And no, the contest has started already, so you're perfectly eligible.

[westfw]

Added more and better pictures.

[Ushanka]

Good stuff. I make sushi with fruit all the time. It's especially delicious with pineapple; I implore you to try it!

[westfw]

Do you season the rice differently for fruit sushi, or stick with the usual sweetened rice vinegar?

[ninjapants]

I was thinking about doing this, but you beat me to it! Actually, I was thinking something more along the lines of slivered strawberrys as filling... Did you cut the rice paper sheets into squares? One suggestion on the "rice paper sticking to the mat" problem - maybe try wrapping the mat in plastic wrap like you would for a California Roll. Thanks for a great instructable!

[Crash2108]

You should replace the rice paper with algae. That is real sushi.

[Robotrix]

How would it taste with mango?

[westfw]

I'm not sure how nori would taste with coconut, sugar, and mango. Doesn't seem obviously awful, but... If you're experimenting, rice paper is much cheaper than nori, too. OTOH, it tends to stick to the sushi mat...

[wombat7]

sounds awsome!

[Robotrix]

this sounds delicious, and looks like it involves about the right amount of skill :P