Fakthong kaeng buat

Pumpkin poached uncovered in salted coconut milk, cut large so the pieces survive the cooking.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 800 g pumpkin, peeled
• 600 ml coconut milk
• 100 g palm sugar
• 0.75 teaspoon salt
• 2 pandan leaves, knotted
• 100 ml coconut cream, to finish

Method

1. CUT LARGE, AND COOK UNCOVERED. Pumpkin needs three times as long as the banana in the kluai buat chi on this site, and it falls apart far more readily. 4 cm chunks survive; 2 cm dice turn to purée. And a lid traps steam that cooks it from all sides at once, which is how a pan of neat chunks becomes soup.
2. Leave a little skin on one face of each piece if the pumpkin is firm. It holds the chunk together and softens enough to eat.
3. A DENSE PUMPKIN, not a watery one. Kabocha or a Thai pumpkin. A soft orange field pumpkin collapses whatever you do.
4. Coconut milk, palm sugar, salt and pandan in a wide pan, warmed until the sugar dissolves.
5. THREE QUARTERS OF A TEASPOON OF SALT. As with every coconut dessert here, that is what stops it being flatly sweet.
6. Pumpkin in, in a single layer, and brought to a bare shiver. Never a boil -- the milk splits and the chunks knock against each other and break.
7. 20 to 25 minutes uncovered, turning the pieces once with a spoon, gently.
8. They are done when a skewer goes in with slight resistance still. They soften further off the heat.
9. Rest 15 minutes before serving so the pumpkin takes up the milk.
10. Pandan out, coconut cream spooned over unstirred.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes