If you love rice pudding and you love coconut, this dish is for you.  The basics of this dish are fairly simple – make sushi rice and, instead of coating the rice in sushi su, coat it in a coconut cream/sugar mixture.  This dish takes just over one hour to make and is worth every minute.

Coconut Sticky Rice

2 cups sushi or other short-grain rice
2 cups water, plus more for rinsing and soaking
16 oz can of coconut cream
¼ cup cane sugar
Vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Rinse rice with water, rubbing grains between hands to remove excel starch.  Drain and repeat until water comes out clear.  Starch on the rice makes a gummy rice that impedes absorption of the coconut mixture.

Soak rice in water until the grains turn a milky white.  About 15 minutes

Drain rice in a colander and set aside to dry.  About 15 minutes

Place rice and 2 cups water in a medium sized pot with a snug-fitting lid.  Cook over medium heat until boiling, stirring occasionally and scraping any rice grains from sides of pot.  Turn heat down to medium low, cover with iid and cook until most of the water is absorbed.  Around 5 minutes.

Turn heat to very low and steam around 10 minutes, or until all of the water is absorbed.   Turn off heat and leave rice on the burner.  Let rest 10 minutes to “set” the rice.

While rice is setting, combine coconut cream, sugar and vanilla bean or extract in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.  Cook until sugar is dissolved.  Do not boil.  Remove from heat.  Remove vanilla bean.

Turn hot rice out into a large glass pan and spread evenly.  In three equal parts, pour the warm coconut mixture on the rice and stir gently, avoiding smashing any of the rice grains.  Once all of the mixture is absorbed into the rice, mix in the next two installments in the same fashion.  Once all of the coconut mixture is absorbed, transfer into desired dish.

While this rice is good plain, I really like it with mango and sometimes some Brown Sugar Ginger Sauce.  Serve warm or cold.

Eat Well!

~Trish