Khao tom mat

Part-cooked coconut rice wrapped round a whole banana in banana leaf and steamed.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 500 g glutinous rice
• 500 ml coconut milk
• 80 g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 100 g black beans, soaked and boiled
• 12 small bananas
• 24 banana leaf pieces, 25 cm square
• kitchen string

Method

1. PART-COOKED IN COCONUT MILK, THEN WRAPPED. The rice is stirred over heat until the milk is absorbed but the grain still has a hard core, and it finishes inside the parcel. Cooked through first, it turns to paste in the steamer; wrapped raw, the middle stays chalky.
2. THE WHOLE BANANA IS THE FILLING and it must be small and firm. A large soft one collapses into the rice and the parcel has no centre.
3. Soak the rice 3 hours and drain.
4. Rice, coconut milk, sugar and salt in a wide pan, stirred over a medium heat 10 to 12 minutes until the liquid has gone and the grains are swollen but still firm in the middle.
5. Black beans folded through. Spread it out to cool enough to handle.
6. Wilt the banana leaves over a flame until limp and glossy, or they split on the first fold.
7. Two tablespoons of rice flattened on a leaf, a peeled banana laid on it, more rice over the top, then shaped so the banana is completely enclosed.
8. Fold the long sides over, then the ends under, and tie two parcels together back to back.
9. PACK THEM UPRIGHT AND WEIGHT THEM in the steamer so they cannot shift, and steam 1 hour.
10. Cool at least 20 minutes before opening. Opened hot, the rice has not set and comes away with the leaf.

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