The combination of coconut milk, sticky rice, and sweet ripe mango has been a popular Thai dessert for centuries. Stateside, people are more likely to order mango sticky rice (or khao niaow ma muang) from their favorite Thai restaurant, but it’s incredibly easy to make at home. The base ingredient is glutinous rice (often labeled “sweet rice” on the package), a short-grain variety grown all over Asia that develops a chewy texture when cooked. (It’s also ground into flour to make other dishes popular throughout East and Southeast Asia, like mochi.) Note that sticky rice is neither sweet on its own (it’s merely used frequently in sweet preparations) nor does it contain gluten (a misunderstanding about the name glutinous rice; so, yes, this dessert is gluten-free).
While you can’t make sticky rice by just throwing it in the rice cooker, like jasmine rice, it’s not hard to prepare: After you rinse the grains, you soak them overnight, then cook them in a steamer. (Here we use a makeshift steamer by setting a sieve over a pot of water; if your sieve has large holes, line the bottom with cheesecloth before rinsing and steaming your rice.) To finish: Mix the cooked rice with coconut milk and sugar, pair it with fresh mango slices, and scatter on some toasted sesame seeds.
In Thailand, this dish is most popular in spring, which is the peak mango season. But these days, good mangoes can be found in the markets (or ordered online) at pretty much any time of year. The best kinds of mangoes for this dish are the sweet, creamy varieties with golden skins, but whatever variety you find, make sure it’s tender to the touch—you should be able to easily press your thumb into a ripe mango and make an indention.