I love mango sticky rice. The stewed down rice with salty coconut milk and juicy mango, it’s a fun combination to play around with. For this particular recipe, I wanted to accentuate that classic Asian dessert by doing rice three ways, and mango two ways. For the rice, I used black rice and did a rice pudding, and instead of coconut milk, I made rice milk, and soaked some homemade dango, Japanese rice balls, in said rice milk. A lot of Taiwanese style desserts feature a sweet stewed ingredient, be it rice, lentils, beans, yams, etc. with milk to be poured over it. If you have ever been to MeetFresh, which is a Taiwanese dessert shop, this dessert would evoke a very similar eating experience. With the mango elements, I went with yuzu-compressed mango for tartness, and a champagne mango veil to add a pretty color and a fun texture – the veils I make are made with agar, which is another popular dessert ingredient in both Chinese and Japanese desserts! For the plating, I went with both a petit four-sized portion, and a plated dessert as well, just to showcase the versatility in this recipe!

For the rice pudding:
1/4 cup black rice
2 cups water
a pinch of salt
reserved mango seed
1/4 cup rice milk
3 tablespoons palm sugar

Place the rice, water, salt, and reserved mango seed into a pot and bring to a simmer on low heat, covered for 30 minutes. Scrape any flesh off the mango seed and stir into the rice. Finish with the rice milk and palm sugar.

For the rice milk:
1/4 cup sushi rice
1 cup hot water
a pinch of salt
2 tablespoons palm sugar

Pour the rice into the hot water with the salt. Puree in a blender with the palm sugar, and pass through a cheese cloth. Reserve 1/4 cup of the rice milk to finish the rice pudding with.

For the compressed mango:
1/2 a champagne mango
1 tablespoon yuzu juice
a pinch of salt

Peel and dice the mango into 1/2-inch cubes. Toss with the salt and yuzu juice and place into a ziplock, removing as much air as possible. Keep refrigerated.

For the dango:
1/4 cup shiratamako
1/4 cup mochiko
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons water
a pinch of salt

Mix to form a dough. Divide into 16 round pieces. Place the dango pieces in boiling hot water until they begin to float. Soak in the rice milk.

For the mango veil:
1/4 cup mango puree(made from 1/2 a champagne mango blended with 3 tablespoons water)
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon agar agar
a pinch of salt

Place everything into a pot and put on medium heat. Bring to a simmer until the agar and salt are fully dissolved into the other ingredients. Pour into a shallow and wide surface and refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes. Cut into smaller pieces.