Fragrant Lychees with Wild and Brown "Sticky" Rice

Spiced Lychees with "Sticky" Wild and Brown Rice

Spiced Lychees with "Sticky" Wild and Brown Rice along with Jackfruit Sauce

I am going to make a broad stereotypical statement here that RICE is the comfort food of most Asians; especially for South Indians like me I cannot imagine life without my almost daily portions of rice in some format or another. When I am sick or tired I make either ganji (Indian rice gruel or porridge). I usually eat ganji with a bit of salt, ghee and lime pickle and it takes care of all the problems in my world at that moment. We eat rice items like dosas and idlis for breakfast or for special occasions steamed semige noodles with coconut rasa. Our typical lunch or dinner menu stars the some type of white rice accompanying various rasams, sambhars or perhaps on their own in a one pot rice meal like Bise Bhele Bhath or Lemon Rice or Coconut Rice. We even consume rice in our desserts with Payasams and Kheers so it’s no surprise to me when Sharmi of Neivedyam picked Rice as the star ingredient for this month's Jihva for Ingredient event. JFI was pioneered by Indira of Mahanandi.

Although I have gone on about Indian dishes with rice; for this JFI I decided to create a SE Asian specialty but it’s been “globalized” with other ingredients to help serve various purposes. First of all, I found a recipe for Longans with Sticky Rice in my Thai cookbook “Thai Vegetarian Cooking” by Vatcharin Bhumichitr and since Longans were noted to be similar to Lychees, I decided to swap the two out. Of course I selected Lychees as it represents a very SE Asian flavor and it’s the fruit of choice for AFAM hosted by Sig over at Live to Eat and this event was the brainchild of Maheshwari – Beyond the Usual. Instead of using typical “sticky” glutinous rice originating in Thailand for this dish I experimented with a mixture of California rice including Calmati Brown Rice, Wild Rice, Sweet Brown Rice and finally Heirloom Red Rice. I bought a container of this mixed rice from Costco of all places and I am very happy with the results. I created the sticky rice twice, once presoaking the mixed rice and once without the soaking. Although both ways good results, I think the presoaking of the rice gives the “sticky” rice more of a softer, sticky texture than the other method. I also went ahead and used Agave Nectar in this recipe to see why people are using it and talking about this low glycemic index, natural sweetener and I was pleasantly surprised with the mild, mellow flavor. It completely complements this dessert and it doesn’t take much of the nectar to sweeten the dish. I *HIGHLY* recommend Agave Nectar to folks now! If you don’t have Agave Nectar I would use sugar or jaggery instead and use a bit more than the recipe calls as Agave Nectar is a little sweeter than sugar.

Finally, I made an optional sauce using another favorite fruit of mine – Jackfruit and it really added a nice dimension to the lychees and sticky rice. If you are not a fan of jackfruit, skip it, the sticky rice and lychees can be consumed pretty well without it!

With my Rice coming from California, Cardamom from India, Agave Nectar from Mexico, Lychees from China and Coconut milk from all over Asia, Caribbean, West Africa and Polynesia, I think I have a truly "Global" dish, no? So here goes the recipe:

Raw Mixed California Rice including Calmati Brown Rice, Sweet Brown Rice, Wild Rice, and Heirloom Red Rice.
A picture of the rice container and lychees.
Recipe (Inspired by Vatcharin Bhumichitr's Longan with Sticky Rice Recipe from Thai Vegetarian Cooking)

• 1 Cup Uncooked Mixed Wild and Brown Rice (ratio of brown rice is higher than red or wild). If you cannot find this mix then substituting a couple of varieties of brown basmati plus a teaspoon of wild rice would do.
• 3 Cups Water
• 1 Can of Lychees or ~14 Fresh, peeled Lychees, retain the syrup from can.
• 1 Small Can Coconut Milk ~1 cup
• 4 Tablespoons Agave Nectar
• 1/2 Teaspoon powdered cardamom
• 1 pinch salt

Method:

Wash and soak rice for at least 4 to 6 hours. In a medium sized saucepan heat up 1/2 cup of water from canned lychees. When it comes to boil, add 2 tablespoons agave nectar, cardamom and lychees. If you are using fresh lychees, increase agave nectar to 3 tablespoons as you won't have the sweet canned water. Let the lychees cook in this syrup till the water reduces to half and let it cool.

Next, boil water with soaked rice in a thick bottomed pan. When the water reaches high boil, reduce the heat to low/sim and add rest of the agave nectar and 2 to 3 large tablespoons of coconut milk (I used only the thick milk from the top of the can for this) and salt. Cover the rice and let it cook for 30 to 45 minutes till almost all water evaporates and the rice is completely cooked. The rice will be gooey, sticky and slightly chewy. Let it cool down a little.

To make the optional Jackfruit sauce, take a couple of pods of jackfruit and blend with a little bit of the runny coconut milk till you get a smooth puree, warm this sauce slightly before serving.

When rice is warm, serve it in a bowl or plate and top it with a few lychees with syrup, then drizzle some coconut milk over the dessert and eat right away! If you are serving with the jackfruit sauce, pour or decorate the plate with the jackfruit sauce then scoop a serving of rice on top and then layer the lychees with spiced syrup.

If you decide not to presoak the rice, I suggest serving the dessert right after it cools from cooking and is slightly warm as the rice ends up getting a little dry after refrigeration. If you decide to serve the soaked/cooked rice later, then microwave for a few seconds with a few drops of water to warm up. I do not recommend the rice being served cold but the lychees can be ice cold and will make a nice contrast with the warm sticky rice.

Here is the "plain" version of Fragrant Lychees with Wild and Brown Rices Here is the version with Jackfruit Sauce
Verdict? We really enjoyed the rice and it was totally nutty, aromatic and flavorful. Obviously it was not as sticky as the traditional sticky rice or glutinous rice but it was great with the lychees and coconut creme. Next time I am going to try it with the usual dessert item seen in local Thai restaurants - Mango with Sticky Rice!

Here it goes to A Fruit A Month hosted by Sig of Live to Eat and Sharmi of Neivedyam for JFI - Rice.

Other Sticky Rice Recipes I found in the blog world:

• Wajik
• Mamaung Kao
• Thai Sticky Rice
• Black Sticky Rice with Coconut Cream
• Mangos and Sticky Rice
• Thai Black Rice Pudding

Happy India Independance Day!