Khanom babin

Small coconut cakes cooked on a griddle under a lid, browned on both faces and chewy inside.

Duck, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains duck.

Ingredients

• 300 g grated coconut, not desiccated
• 150 g rice flour
• 120 g palm sugar
• 2 duck eggs
• 150 ml coconut milk
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons oil, for the griddle

Method

1. FRESH GRATED COCONUT, NOT DESICCATED, and there is no substitute. Half the mixture by weight is coconut and it is there for moisture as much as flavour; desiccated coconut drinks the liquid and gives a dry crumbly cake. Frozen grated coconut, thawed, works.
2. Mix everything to a thick batter -- somewhere between a dough and a drop-scone mixture. It should mound on a spoon.
3. REST IT 30 MINUTES so the rice flour hydrates. Cooked straight away it tastes chalky.
4. A heavy griddle or wide pan over a LOW heat, barely oiled. This is a thick cake and it needs time; over a high heat the outside is black before the middle sets.
5. Heaped tablespoons, flattened to 1 cm discs, well apart.
6. LID ON for the first 5 minutes. The trapped steam cooks the middle while the base browns, and without it the centre stays raw.
7. Lid off, turn, and give the second side 4 to 5 minutes uncovered so it dries and browns.
8. They should be deep gold on both faces and chewy rather than cakey inside.
9. Press one gently: it should spring back slowly. If it squashes it needs longer.
10. Eat warm. They firm as they cool and are best the day they are made.

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