STICKY RICE WITH MANGO THAI DESSERT

Steps:

• Tips: If done in a 2+ quart microwavable casserole with a lid, you can go from start to table really quickly, easily, and with minimal cleanup. To speed things up even further, make your sauces and prep your fruit while your rice is soaking/cooking. Be sure to use glutinous rice, which can be found at Asian markets. It will be labeled "glutinous rice" and/or "sweet rice". Good ripe mangoes are a MUST, so be sure you can find them first, before you go any further.
• Soak raw rice in plenty of water for 30 minutes. Rinse the rice by stirring it with your fingers, draining, and refilling with water. Stir-drain-refill a couple or three times, then finally drain most of the water away until the rice is covered by about a quarter inch of water. Microwave on high, covered, for ten minutes.
• Shake a 13.5 ounce can of coconut milk well before opening then divide in half: pour one half into a bowl or tall glass to make the rice sauce, and keep the other half in the can to make the cream sauce. Or the other way 'round, it doesn't matter :-).
• Rice sauce: Stir a cup of sugar and pinch of salt into the coconut milk until dissolved. Pour *most* of the mixture over the cooked rice and stir gently but thoroughly to blend (I feel that this makes a little too much sauce so I use about 3/4 of it and discard the remainder.) The rice/sauce mixture will be soupy while hot but will firm up well once cooled. If you want to add mango chunks to the whole dish, now is the time to stir them inches If you want to make individual serving cups, set them up now and chill to firm.
• Cream sauce: Stir the corn starch, salt, and sugar into the other half can of coconut milk. Heat in a sauce pan, uncovered, on the stove top until bubbling, stirring frequently to avoid scorching.
• Serving notes: This makes a glorious platter with the fruit arranged around a big mound of rice with the cream sauce drizzled over the top, or you can fancy it up by presenting individual dishes. If I'm making this for a party I serve it in the same covered casserole dish that I cooked it in, stirring the mango chunks into the rice and offering the cream sauce on the side. That way everyone gets plenty of mango and sauce instead of just the first guests. However you choose to serve it, it's a hit.