Khanom tan

A batter leavened by the palm fruit itself fermenting overnight, then steamed in leaf cups.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g ripe toddy palm pulp
• 350 g rice flour
• 150 g caster sugar
• 300 ml coconut milk
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 150 g grated coconut, to top
• banana leaf cups or small moulds

Method

1. THE FRUIT LEAVENS IT, AND THAT TAKES OVERNIGHT. No baking powder and no yeast: ripe toddy palm pulp ferments on its own, and the batter is left 8 to 12 hours until it is visibly bubbling and smells sour-sweet. That is what makes these rise into a light open sponge. The khanom babin on this site is griddled flat and unleavened; this is the risen one.
2. RIPE PULP, NOT YOUNG PALM SEEDS. The tinned clear seeds are a different part of the plant and will not ferment. You want the orange fibrous pulp, fresh or frozen.
3. Squeeze the pulp through a sieve or muslin to get the fibre out, pressing hard. Fibre left in is unpleasant and stops it rising evenly.
4. Mix the pulp with the rice flour, sugar, coconut milk and salt to a thick batter.
5. Cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature overnight. It should be domed and bubbling by morning.
6. IF IT HAS NOT RISEN, IT WILL NOT. There is nothing else leavening it, and steaming a flat batter gives dense rubber.
7. Stir it down gently once, no more. Beating it knocks out everything the night built.
8. Into leaf cups or moulds, two thirds full.
9. Steam over a ROLLING boil, 20 minutes, with a cloth under the lid. A gentle steam will not set the rise fast enough and they collapse.
10. Grated coconut scattered over in the last 3 minutes. Eat the same day.

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