One of my favorite desserts is the creamy coconut rice topped with fresh slices of mango that you find in a lot of Thai restaurants. It’s light and sweet and topped with fruit so it’s basically the healthiest thing around, right? Recently I’ve really been craving the stuff, but thought I might put a little twist on it, making it into a breakfast baked rice pudding. Now I can start the day with dessert–sounds good to me!
Coconut Rice Pudding with Mango
-1 can coconut milk
-2 eggs
-1/3 c. sugar
-pinch salt
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-1/4 c. shredded coconut
-2 1/2 c. already cooked and cooled rice* (white or brown rice work great!)
-1 mango, sliced
-sesame seeds for garnish
First heat the coconut milk over a medium high heat until it’s just simmering. Then combine the eggs, sugar, and salt, and slowly drizzle the coconut milk into the egg mixture so that it won’t scramble. Next add the vanilla, shredded coconut, and rice
Pour this mixture into a casserole dish and place that dish into a larger baking dish. Pour water into the baking dish, half way up the side of the casserole dish. This is called a bain-marie and is often used with custards to make sure they cook gently and evenly–aren’t you so fancy!
Place the whole thing (carefully!) into a 325° oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until it is nicely set up but still soft. Remove it from the oven and serve either warm or cold with sliced mango and sesame seeds to garnish. Enjoy!
*I mention the amount of cooked rice to use in this recipe, because this is a great thing to make with leftover rice! However, if you’re starting from scratch, you’ll want to cook about 1 cup of dry rice and then let it cool so that it won’t scramble the eggs.
Adeline Alley 