Sweet sticky rice "cake" with coconut cream "frosting"

(4 – 6 Servings)

Sticky Rice Layer

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• Before cooking sticky rice, it must first be washed. Rinse the rice in a strainer until the water is clear. Traditional wisdom in Thailand is that it takes three washings to properly clean the dust off the rice.
• Here’s the tricky part: the rice must be soaked overnight (in other words, about eight hours or more) before cooking.
• Next, sticky rice must be steamed, not boiled, so you cannot use a traditional rice cooker unless it has a strainer to keep the water separated from the rice. You also get the best results if the rice is a uniform depth when cooking. I’ve gotten my best results using a round cake pan with a mesh bottom placed in a vegetable steamer. The pan allows the rice to be smoothed to an even depth, while the mesh bottom allows the steam through without letting the rice fall out. Steam the rice about 20 minutes.
• While the rice is cooking, stir together the sugar and coconut cream. It helps dissolve the sugar if you warm the coconut cream for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before stirring in the sugar.
• As soon as the rice is cooked, transfer it to a large bowl and pour the sweet coconut cream over it. Stir it to mix and let it set. If you seem to have too much liquid, strain the mixture to remove the excess.
• Once the mixture has cooled slightly, you can transfer it to a square pan – an eight-inch one works well. Spread the rice out to form a flat layer about a half-inch thick. Keep it in the refrigerator to make it firm.

Coconut Cream Topping

Ingredients

Preparation Method

• To create the coconut cream second layer, mix together the coconut milk, rice flour and salt in a pan. Heat to boiling over medium flame, stirring until it thickens. Remove from heat and spoon onto the top of the first layer.
• Store in the refrigerator.

Serving note: If you refrigerate this dessert – which you will want to do if you’ve made it well ahead of time – be sure to take it out well enough ahead of time to be served at room temperature. The dish doesn’t taste very good cold, and needs to be room temperature or warmer. You can cut the dessert into oblong pieces, or use an egg ring as I did for the photo to make a larger portion – leaving lots of leftover bits to spoil your dinner with.

In the 1904 book The Kingdom of Siam, prepared for Thailand’s grand pavilion at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis, U.S.A., a former assistant to the Minister of Agriculture, W.A. Graham, Esq. wrote:

"The Siamese are, before all things, an agricultural nation. From time immemorial, the valley of the [Chaophraya] has been one vast rice-field, and the present inhabitants of the country continue to plow, sow, and reap in it after the same methods, and with the same kind of implements, as were employed by their predecessors a thousand years ago."

With such a long history, it’s no surprise that rice has become deeply ingrained (if you’ll pardon the expression) in Thai life. Entire books can, and have, been written about the importance of rice in Thailand. Rice is associated with times of plenty, it’s given as offerings to monks and at temples, and it has woven its way into every day language. A well-off person or village may be described as having "leftover rice", while the early infatuation stage of a relationship is sometimes compared to "young rice." It may then come as no surprise that the common phrase for having a meal translates to "eat rice."

Fragrant Jasmine rice on sale in a fresh market.

The rice eaten by Thais is mostly the long grained "Jasmine" strain, named for its flowery fragrance when cooked. In recent years, Thai Jasmine rice has become so coveted that Thailand had to go to court in the United States to block attempts to patent the strain by an American company. Cooked rice is usually simply referred to as khao suay, which literally translates to "beautiful rice." Thais will normally rinse rice before cooking it. Traditionally, the rice is rinsed three times in a row before being placed in a pot for cooking. The amount of water added for cooking is quite important, and varies slightly with the exact quality of rice used. A good rule of thumb for the higher grades of rice purchased in stores is to use two cups of water for every cup of rice. Rice is cooked until all the water is absorbed, which should be around 20 minutes. The rice should be allowed to ‘rest’ covered at least a few minutes before serving.

Essential equipment for cooking sticky rice: a traditional rice steamer.

In the north of Thailand, as well as the north-east, Thais traditionally eat glutinous "sticky rice" which is called khao neeo. Sticky rice has shorter, whiter grains than jasmine rice. Oddly, sticky rice becomes more translucent when cooked, while the jasmine rice becomes more opaque. Sticky rice is less common than it was many years ago, but it’s still easy to find in the north, where certain foods "just can’t" be eaten without it.

One of the reasons for sticky rice becoming less common may be its more complex preparation. First, the rice must be soaked overnight in cold water, then rinsed thoroughly. The rice is then steamed by placing it in a conical bamboo basket that fits snugly onto a purpose-made pot. You can cook sticky rice in a regular steamer, after lining it with cheesecloth to make sure the rice does not fall into the water.

Rice was traditionally planted in May, after the rainy season has begun in earnest. Farmers would usually plant some fast growing rice, to replenish dwindling stocks from the previous planting season, as well as slower growing varieties that will mature later but provide a greater amount of rice per plant.

In days gone by, as many as 100 different rice strains were grown in the Chiang Mai valley, but in recent years this has shrunk to less than 20 as high yield strains have gained wide acceptance. The rice is started out in seed beds, but then transplanted to the rice fields after 30 to 50 centimeters of water has accumulated in the paddy. Once the backbreaking work of preparing the fields and transplanting the young plants is completed, relatively little work is required until the rice is ready to be harvested. The flooded fields don’t require any weeding.

On the street, you’ll find rice at the curry stalls of course, but you’ll also find a couple of "specialty" stalls selling some specific rice dishes that are favored by Thais. You’ll also find places where you can order rice stir-fried to order.