#291_Thai Mango-Sticky Rice

Thai Mango Sticky Rice

A guest at a dinner party I went to just recently brought this delicious dessert (picture above) with some coconut sauce in a separate container for the topping. The guest who brought it was actually a Filipina who grew up in Thailand, so there should be an authenticity in her dish. Too bad she left early so I was not able to ask for her recipe....maybe, she knew I was going to so she left early... just kidding.

I wanted to replicate that dessert so bad so I browsed the net and found many different recipes out there, so it was a little hard to choose which one would be close to the kind I tasted at the party. Fortunately, I am able to put a recipe together.....

This dessert is a "cousin" to our very own "Biko" or is a variant of Biko or vice versa (click here for my post on Biko). The reason I said that is because they share common ingredients, i.e. glutinous rice or sticky rice, coconut cream and sugar, but the method of preparation is different from each other thereby resulting to different end products.

Here's what separates the two:
First, the consistency of the Thai sticky rice is so moist, as the rice is saturated with coconut sauce. Whereas the Philippine Biko is drier as we cook the rice a little passed "al dente" stage, which means the rice grains are soft and yet firm. Second, the Thai sticky rice uses coconut sauce for toppings, whereas the Philippine Biko is topped with "latik" ( "ganusal" in Pangasinan), or sometimes topped with toasted flaked coconut. In other words, Thai sticky rice is wet that you have to scoop the rice out with a spoon while the Philippine Biko is dry, and can be sliced. Both kinds are very good.

Thai Mango Sticky Rice, a.k.a. Biko con "Sabaw"

I made this dessert using both white glutinous rice and purple rice
and they turned out really good.
The purple rice is maybe another cousin...
maybe a third cousin. (*..")wink, wink!

Here's my take on this recipe which tastes
so close to the one I tasted at the party....

Rinse and soak 4 cups of glutinous rice in water overnight.
Cook sticky rice either by steaming method or rice cooker method.(to cook rice in rice cooker,
refer to my post on Biko, recipe #7, click here)
While the rice is cooking make the Coconut Sauce:
Sauce 1:
1-1/2 cans coconut cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
Cook this mixture in a pan over medium heat,
stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Stir in 1 tsp vanilla extract, a secret ingredient

Spread cooked rice on a dish and pour Sauce 1 over it.
Let the sauce soak into the rice.
(can also stir/mix sauce and rice together)

Sauce 2:
1/2 can coconut cream
1/4 cup sugar
dash salt
1 tsp Tapioca starch dissolved in a little bit of water.

Put ingredients in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat, stirring
until sugar is dissolved and sauce is thickened a little bit.
Add a 1/2 tsp of Vanilla extract....or a drop or 2...
that's a secret ingredient.

(Note1:this sauce won't get too thick, it is just slightly thicker than Sauce1. The 1/2 tsp of tapioca starch is just enough to give the sauce a little body to consistency of the sauce.

To serve the Sticky Rice, scoop up the cooked rice
with an ice cream scooper onto a platter,
then pour Sauce 2 over rice. Arrange mango slices along side.



Note: the amount of coconut milk and sugar to use in this recipe
is totally a personal preference.
If you want this dessert to be sweeter,
then add more sugar,
if you want to use more coconut cream,
there's nothing wrong with that either.

Another option on serving this dessert is to
put Sauce 2 in a separate bowl
and place it along side the plate.

******
Here's a simpler way to make the Coconut Sauce:

Pour 2 cans of coconut cream in a sauce pan, then add 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to simmer over medium high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Take out about 1-1/2 cups of the sauce into a bowl. Set aside....This is Sauce 1

Dissolve the Tapioca starch in a little bit of water and mix it in with the remaining coconut sauce in the pan, continue to heat it up, stirring, until the sauce is slightly thickened....
This is Sauce 2.
Don't forget to add in the secret ingredient!

Steamed Glutinous Rice
I will be posting "how to steam rice" in another entry.

FYI...this is the best kind of mango to serve with this dessert.

Update 5-2-11...See post on how to steam rice with an improvised steamer, click here.

Related post from this blog: other ways to serve Biko:
http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/08/biko-with-mango-jam-topping.html http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/08/165biko-mango-custard-sushi-style.html

#167_Biko with Mango Jam Topping

Here's another way to serve Biko.....
top it with Mango Jam. Mmmmmm goodness!!

I might be breaking the rules here
by deviating from the traditional biko topping,
but this sure gives the "old" Biko (click here), a nice lift.

I had biko and mango jam in the freezer and every time
I opened the freezer these two kept staring
at me like they're screaming:
"get me out of here!" and " eat me, eat me!"
I felt sorry for them so, finally the other day,
I took them out of the freezer
and thawed them out in the fridge overnight.
Just before I put them together,
I heated up the Biko in the microwave,
then topped it with Mango Jam.
What an excellent pair! Made in Heaven!
Fabulistic!!!

Mango Jam goes really well with sticky rice or malagkit or biko.
To make plain Biko check out Sushi Style Biko recipe #165.
For Mango Jam recipe click here.

I bought a box of these red/green mangoes a while back.
I knew I wouldn't enjoy them, but because I was desperate,
I thought I'd give them a try.
Didn't care much to eat them after all, but
to turn them into jam, they're okay.

***************************************

#165_Sushi Style Biko with Mango Custard Cream Filling

Mangoes + Brazo de Mercedes + Biko + Sushi=
A fantastic dessert

Not quite Heinz 57, but this is one "mixed-up" dessert!

For those not familiar with Brazo de Mercedes, it is a very popular dessert in the Philippines
made with baked meringue filled with custard cream, then rolled up like pumpkin roll cake or jelly roll. Here's some of the pictures, click here.

Biko is another favorite dessert in the Philippines made of glutinous rice, cooked in coconut cream and sugar. Click here.

To make this dessert, you'll need:

1 recipe for Biko without any topping
1 recipe for Custard Cream Filling
1 ripe mango, sliced lengthwise

The beauty of this dessert is that the main ingredients, the biko and cream filling, can be made ahead of time then refrigerated.
Before serving, just heat them in the microwave. You can even assemble it in front of our guests. It is that easy to make.

I modified the method for making Biko just for this recipe as I'm using it to roll up the mango filling, and it is not going back to the oven.

Here's how I did it:

This is just a half of the recipe
Please refer to recipe #7, click here, how to make Biko.

After cooking the glutinous rice in the rice cooker, dissolve 1 cup brown sugar in a 1/2 a can of coconut

milk, in a pan over medium heat. Bring it up to a boil. Stir in the cooked rice and continue to cook until it dries up and rice is fully cooked.

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a work surface. On the plastic wrap spread some of the cooked rice into rectangle and spread some of the Custard Cream Filling. Arrange some sliced mangoes on the cream.

Roll up the filled rice just like rolling a jelly roll cake

Cut the rolled up Biko into about 2-inch thickness

Serve them on a plate with the cut sides up.
Put some more cream filling and cubes of mangoes on top.
Thin down the cream filling with milk
so you can drizzle it easily on top.

This is the best kind of mangoes to use for this dessert.
ENJOY!!

NOTE from MaMely:
For the custard cream filling, I used 1 whole can of coconut cream instead of 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup coconut cream.

#65_GLUTINOUS RICE CAKE WITH TOPPING

Latik or Nilatikan
(Glutinous Rice Cake with Latik Topping)

It is always fun to go to Filipino get-togethers because we play "name games" on the food we bring. Just like with this rice cake, someone from the Tagalog region call this "bibingkang malagkit", another one from Manila said they call it "bibingkang kakanin", in Bicol, they call it "biko". I'm from Pangasinan and we call it "latik" or "nilatikan" over there. One thing we all agree on though is that it is yummy, no matter how we call it.

Latik refers to the caramelized sauce made of coconut cream and panucha (molasses cake) and is used as topping for this particular rice cake. It also refers to the kakanin (rice cake) itself, thus latik.

On the otherhand, in Tagalog, latik refers to the curdles from coconut milk when making coconut oil.

Confused???!! I don't blame you because I'm too! That's why I chose "GLUTINOUS RICE CAKE WITH TOPPING" for the title.

In this recipe, I used light brown sugar instead of the panucha for the topping. Most of the time though, I use the bottled coconut jam or katiba, found in most Asian stores, for the topping. It is a shortcut to making this dessert...it is quick, less work and less messy.

If you decide to use the bottled coconut jam, heat it in a pot with some coconut milk to make it more spreadable. Do not microwave.

RECIPE FOR NILATIKAN:

4 cups glutinous rice
4 cups water
1/2 can coconut cream
2 cups white sugar

TOPPING:
1 1/2 cans coconut cream
2 cups light brown sugar

Cook rice just like the procedure in Biko recipe #7, click here.

1) Rinse glutinous rice with cold water, drain well. Add the water and cook in a rice cooker just like cooking regular rice.
2) When cooked, stir in the sugar and coconut cream. Mix well.


3) Spread the mixture into a greased 9x13" baking pan.
(Sorry, this is a bad picture as the sauce looks more orange in color than dark brown. I guess I have to blame the lighting).

4) Pour the latik on top and smooth it out.
5) Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 45 minutes.
6) Let cool before slicing.

HOW TO MAKE THE TOPPING (LATIK):
1) In a non-stick pot, combine the coconut cream and the brown sugar.
2) Boil, stirring often, until thick but of spreadable consistency.

#7_ Biko ( Rice Cake)

In Pangasinan, this is BIKO. I know that different regions in the Philippines have different names and versions for this kakanin, but for me, this is "the" BIKO and I'm sticking to it!


Originally, Biko is topped with ganosal, in Tagalog, latik, which is the curdles from the coconut milk when making coconut oil. Well, there were two reasons I didn't make latik for the topping: One, I don't know how to make it. Two, I know it is so tedious to make it because I had seen my mother make them all the time and I don't have any interest whatsoever in learning how to make it. My friend, Aida, substitutes toasted coconut for the latik. It's a very good substitute and in fact it's as good as the latik if not better. Personally, I like the toasted coconut better because it gives crunchiness to the BIKO.

This version of biko is from my friend Gloria. There is no soaking the malagkit in water for hours,(which causes the grains to break up when cooked). You don't need to cook the sugar and coconut milk on top of the stove. This is very easy to make and yet its very good and it is the way I like biko to be, not mushy and the grains retained their shapes, they are not broken up to pieces. I've been doing it wrong until just recently Gloria told me to fully cook the malagkit. I cooked it that way today and also my water-malagkit ratio was precise. It came out so perfect!

Ingredients:
4 cups malagkit
4 cups water
1/2 can coconut milk (updated)
2 cups DARK BROWN sugar, firmly packed
Sweetened Flaked coconuts, toasted (optional)

Procedure:
1. Rinse the malagkit and cook it in rice cooker with 4 cups water
2. Grease a 9"x13" baking dish with butter and line it with a piece of banana leaf. Grease top of banana leaf also.
3. When the malagkit is fully cooked, turn power off but leave the malagkit in the rice cooker pot. In it, while the malagkit is still hot, add the coconut milk and the sugar stirring well but gently until everything is all blended together.
4. Spread the mixture in the prepared pan. Do not press down, just smooth the top out
5. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
6. Sprinkle toasted flaked coconuts on top.

Related posts:
Nilatikan>>>>>http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/01/64glutinous-rice-cake-with-topping.html
Biko:>>>http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/04/291mango-sticky-rice.html

Notes from MaMely:
I found that using dark brown sugar brings better result. Taste, texture and color are better. No, there's no taste of molasses. The amount of water used in this recipe is the key. Make sure the ratio is 1:1

Lining the bottom of pan with banana leaf is optional.