Sun Diego Eats
Sun Diego Eats -
It’s still summer! I know everyone is eagerly anticipating pumpkinspicethings and wearingnotallwhite but we’re not there yet. It was 90 degrees yesterday. Here anyways. There is still time for mangoes. And popsicles. My little jar of cinnamon is still safely cloistered behind the black pepper, two jars of cumin, some dried oregano we never use and a nifty tin of sumac I recently purchased and have been using on everything (kale + sumac = yes).
Mango sticky rice is probably my (and yours….your….you know what I mean) favourite Thai restaurant dessert order. I know they normally have the fried banana wonton things and sometimes a Thai tea ice cream but fragrant coconut-y sticky rice with buttery ripe orange slices of mango wins every time. The good news is that with the right rice this is super easy to recreate at home. And with the wrong rice its still pretty a-ok. If you want to go traditional, glutinous or sweet rice is what you are looking for. But I have made pretty amazing mango sticky rice pudding with forbidden (black) rice. And here I decided to use this pretty green jade rice instead. Jade rice is a medium-grain white rice that is dyed green with bamboo juice (
vibez). The bamboo juice gives it the slightest hint of green tea flavour and the rice cooks up moist and sticky. Sadly the green colour becomes less vivid after cooking. But the stickiness makes it perfect for mango sticky rice applications.
Sidenote: how good are the Chinese at naming rice. Jade rice. Forbidden rice. Who is their rice PR marketing genius.
Making the popsicles is the easiest because making this dessert is the easiest and beyond that all you have to do it pour it into molds and let it freeze. You cook the rice in a mixture of sugar, coconut milk, and water, letting each grain plump up and grow fat on all that heady coconut and sugar. The rice is cooked until it absorbs all that goodness; fading from a flinty moss green to a pale pearly jade. The grains should be soft and sticky with a light brown caramelized layer forming on the sides of the pan. This toasted, sticky mess is folded with more coconut cream and almond milk until the pale green grains are swimming in creamy white. Lastly, chunks of golden orange mangoes are tumbled into the pan and stirred in . The whole thing is left to cool and then poured into popsicle molds. Wait for 4 hours, dip in white chocolate then sprinkle with sesame seeds. All done.
RECIPE:
MANGO STICKY RICE POPSICLES
Makes about 6 of these Zoku mold popsicles
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 can of full fat coconut milk
- 3/4 cup of jade (green) rice
- 3/4 cup of water
- 1/3-1/2 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup of shredded coconut
- 1 – 1 1/2 cup of vanilla almond milk (can also be regular milk or other milk alternative)
- 1/2 a mango, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
- optional: 2/3 cup good quality white chocolate, 1/3 cup coconut oil, black and white sesame seeds for topping. leave out if you want to keep it vegan!
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Mix 1/2 cup of coconut milk with 3/4 cup of water, 1/3 cup of sugar and the shredded coconut in a medium pan over medium-low heat.
- Heat until mixture is simmering and sugar is dissolved. Add in the rice and turn down the heat to low.
- Cook until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is soft, about 20-25 minutes.
- Once the rice is cooked, turn the heat up to medium low and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes until the bottom of the rice starts to caramelize.
Remove from heat and add in the remaining coconut milk. Add in 1 cup of almond milk. - At this point taste for sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. Remember it should taste sweeter than you’d want it as it will taste less sweet when frozen.
Stir until any additional sugar is dissolved and check the consistency of the mixture. It should have the consistency of oatmeal or a thick pourable batter. - Add more almond milk if necessary.
- Stir in the cubes of mango until evenly distributed.
- Set aside to cool.
- Once cooled, pour into the popsicle molds. Put in the freezer.
- After the popsicles are set (at least 4 hours) prepare the white chocolate shell. In a steep cup (for easier dipping) melt 2/3 cup of white chocolate with 1/3 cup of coconut oil (over a double boiler or in 30 second increments with stirring in between using the microwave).
- Dip each popsicle into the white chocolate and then set aside on parchment paper to set. Sprinkle with black and white sesame seeds while still setting.
Perhaps the best thing about mango sticky rice pops is that if they melt down…you still have mango sticky rice! The gift that keeps on giving. Reminds me of the Mitch Hedberg joke about escalators breaking down “Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience”. The one thing to note is that you do add more liquid to push these into the realm of popsicles (versus the realm of frozen block of rice) so if they will be a little more loose than typical mango sticky rice. And although I always prefer to advocate in the favor or adjusting sweetness to your own taste whenever you freeze something it will taste less sweet so when you try it pre-pouring into molds it should be on the sweeter than ideal side. Fear not though, if you miscalculate there is always the (copious amounts if necessary of) white chocolate glaze.
Oh and do use ripe mangoes! The riper they are, the more sugar-y and the less ice-y they will be in the popsicle. Nonetheless I think these guys are best served when you let them soften at room temperature for a minute or two. And if you forget them on the counter, no harm, you will just have happened upon some delicious mango sticky rice.
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