I must give credit where credit is due: Closet Cooking is a fantastic blog. Kevin creates some incredible and totally accessible dishes in a tiny Toronto apartment, and he came up with this wonder not too long ago.
He is also a much more talented food stylist and photographer than I am!
Anyway, I am a HUGE fan of rice pudding and make it quite frequently, so when I saw his recipe posted I had to try it. Since I make it regularly, I had everything on hand for the coconut rice pudding base and only needed the cardamom spice and mango to go with it.
As it turns out, I had just recently bought a mango, so I think this was meant to be!
Kevin’s recipe is here: Mango Coconut Rice Pudding.
I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some cardamom, and lo I found a pre-made mango puree, too! I didn’t even know they made canned mango puree! I love grocery store chains with large ethnic groups nearby! 🙂
Ok one question: can you use “green” cardamom? I get that you have to take the seeds out of the pods and crush them to use them… but I don’t know if I did it right. Should I have toasted them first? I also need to purchase a mortar and pestle–crushing seeds with a salt shaker just doesn’t cut it.
I made a few adjustments to the recipe since I’ve got my fave pudding recipe already and also because I am lazy and cheap. Mangos are hard to cut up, so I love the canned puree. It’s pretty tasty.
Basically I used my own recipe for coconut rice pudding, but added in the cardamom as directed. I then topped with the canned mango puree and some chunks from my “real” mango.
My thoughts (as I totally slurp this right now)?
Yumm.
I think the mango was a good compliment to the rice in terms of flavour and texture. I enjoyed mixing my chunks in with the puree and rice pudding. I don’t think I added enough cardamom this time around, but next time I anticipate it to be truly exotic!
I was worried that the mango puree might be at war with the sweetness of the pudding, but it actually balances everything well. The mango puree has a slight tart to it–that flavour that comes from natural sweetness and not sugar, so you can really taste both the mango and rice pudding at the same time. The coconut is nice and mellow and rounds things out at the end.
Really good!
The photo above is what I ended up with… I kind of went overboard with the mango puree, but I’m sure you get the idea! Has anyone else tried this recipe yet?
One response to “Mango Coconut Rice Pudding”
I used the green cardamom as well. I still have not found any black cardamom to try… I generally crack the pods open with the flat side of a knife and then grind the little black seeds in a mortar and pestle. I have not tried toasting them.
I recently came a cross some canned mango puree as well, when I went to Little India Toronto. It is pretty convenient. Try it in some oatmeal for breakfast, along with some cardamom.
I really like the mango and coconut flavour combo as well!