5 Mistakes I Made Making Mango Sticky Rice

My first batch used jasmine rice because the bag said Thai fragrant rice, and I assumed that was close enough — I ended up with loose coconut rice pudding, not sticky rice. Glutinous rice (sold as sweet rice or sticky rice) is a different grain that is almost pure amylopectin starch, which is what gives the dish its dense, chewy, almost mochi-like bite. Look for Thai brands like Erawan or Three Ladies in an Asian supermarket or the world foods aisle; a 1 kg bag costs around £2 to £3 and keeps for months. Jasmine, basmati and regular long-grain will never set properly no matter how you cook them, because their starch structure cannot absorb the coconut sauce and hold together. If you truly cannot find it, short-grain sushi rice is the only substitute that gets you somewhere close.

Batch two failed because I did a 30-minute quick soak, and the centres of the grains stayed chalky and crunchy even after 25 minutes of steaming. Glutinous rice cooks by steam alone, so the water it absorbs during soaking is the only moisture it gets — skip the soak and the inside simply never cooks. Rinse the rice in 4 or 5 changes of cold water until it runs mostly clear, then cover it by 5 cm (2 inches) of cold water and leave it for at least 4 hours; overnight on the counter is even better. You can tell it is ready when the grains have turned from translucent to opaque white and snap cleanly when pressed between two fingernails. Now I just start the soak before bed, and the rice is perfect by lunchtime.

I boiled my second attempt like ordinary rice in a saucepan of water, and the outsides of the grains burst into a gummy paste while the middles stayed firm. Sticky rice must cook over water, never in it: line a steamer basket with muslin or cheesecloth, spread the drained rice in an even 2 to 3 cm layer, and steam over simmering water for 20 to 25 minutes, flipping the whole bundle once at the halfway point so it cooks evenly. The rice is done when the grains look glossy and translucent and a pinch feels chewy with no hard core. No steamer? Do what I did: set three scrunched foil balls in a large lidded pot with 3 cm of boiling water, rest a heatproof plate or metal sieve of rice on top, and cover. A rice cooker on the standard setting also works in a pinch, though the texture comes out slightly softer.

I split my first coconut sauce by boiling it hard — it turned grainy and oily instead of silky. Warm 250 ml of full-fat canned coconut milk with 70 g of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt over medium-low heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves, then pull it off the heat before it bubbles. The salt is not optional; without it the dish tastes flat and one-dimensionally sweet instead of properly Thai. The bigger surprise was the rest: pour the hot sauce over the hot rice, stir, and it looks alarmingly soupy — I panicked and served it straight away the first time, and it was wet and bland. Cover the bowl and walk away for 20 to 30 minutes, and the rice drinks up every drop and turns glossy, rich and set.

My saddest batch had perfect rice and a rock-hard, sour supermarket mango on top, and the whole dessert fell apart because of it. Supermarket mangoes are almost always sold under-ripe, so buy them 3 to 5 days before you cook and ripen them on the counter until they smell sweet at the stem and give slightly when pressed, like a ripe avocado. The best varieties are Ataulfo (also labelled honey or champagne mangoes) — small, yellow, and silky with no fibre — which are the closest match to the nam dok mai mangoes used in Thailand. Kent and Keitt are decent backups; avoid the big red-green Tommy Atkins, which is stringy and bland. To slice, cut the two cheeks off either side of the flat stone, score the flesh into strips, and scoop them out with a large spoon.

Start the night before: soak the rice and put your mangoes somewhere warm to finish ripening, and the actual cooking is barely 30 minutes of hands-on work. Buy full-fat canned coconut milk (at least 60 percent coconut extract on the label) — carton coconut drinks are watered down and the rice will taste of nothing. Make the salted coconut drizzle; it takes 3 minutes and that salty-creamy ribbon over the sweet rice is what makes it taste like the real thing from a Bangkok street cart. Serve it warm or at room temperature the same day, never fridge-cold, because chilling turns the rice hard and waxy. And if your first batch is not perfect, it will still get eaten — mine always did.