It's hardly fair. The Thais do such a great job of savoury dishes, it hardly seems fair that they excel at sweets as well. Among my favourite deserts are some standard (and not so standard) Thai ones - sweet sticky rice and coconut milk with mango, black sticky rice pudding, water chestnuts in tapioca starch and pandanus sugar syrup. Like Thai mains, the deserts are made with a heavy emphasis on fresh produce (mangoes, bananas, pineapple, coconut) and coconut milk, which to me is pure heaven.
Another of my favourite Thai sweet recipes is this yummy and easy steamed (or baked) cake. It's got a very dense, moist texture and is very puddingy, so only a small serving is required. If you can find fresh coconut, or even if you can but can't be bothered to grate it, you can use dried unsweetened coconut. To use dried unsweetened coconut instead, all you have to do is soak it in warm water for 10 minutes before using it in this recipe.
Like the clear Thai soup I made earlier this week, I adapted this recipe from that given to me at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School (vanilla isn't really used in Thai cooking, but I can't seem to wean myself from it). I made this in individual servings inside plain white Chinese tea cups and it looked adorable! The tea cups offer just the right amount of this filling dessert for a single serving.
Make sure to lightly grease your baking dish(es) before puring your batter in!
Serves 6
- 2 large bananas
- 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup coconut milk
- 1 + 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (or half a vanilla bean, seeds scraped into the batter)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cups grated coconut (fresh, or dry coconut that has been soaked)
Preheat oven to 400F.
Break up the bananas into a large bowl and mash well using a fork, or a mixer. Add in all the remaining ingredients, reserving a tablespoon of the coconut. Mix well until all the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture into a one 8 x 8 baking tin, or several smaller baking dishes. Place baking tin(s) in a larger pan and fill the outer pan with hot water until the water level reaches halfway up the sides of the baking dishes. Bake for 28 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle the rest of the grated coconut on the top. You can also steam this cake in a pudding tin if you have one.
You can serve this hot or cold. I do prefer it hot! Maybe that's just because I can't stand to wait.
oh, that looks good! You seem to like Thai cooking a lot, and so do I, so that makes me quite happy! I will definitely give this recipe a try!
Question about glutinous rice flour. In Asian stores you reckon?
Thanks
Posted by: Bea at La Tartine Gourmande | January 19, 2006 at 06:09 AM
They certainly are adorable, but I bet they taste even better ;)
Posted by: clare eats | January 19, 2006 at 06:10 AM
Erk, I'm confused. That looks like a ramekin. Was it cooked in that?
Posted by: anthony | January 19, 2006 at 06:34 AM
Looks heavenly. I love sticky rice with mango.
Posted by: Kalyn | January 19, 2006 at 07:00 AM
Bea: you can find glutinous rice flour in most asian stores. If you can't find it, you can substitute regular rice flour, but you might loose a little of the stickiness.
Clare: We ate all of it in one night.
Anthony-San: they are indeed little tea cups. They are just very thick walled. Great for doing little puddings and cakes in. I only ever cook with them in a water bath though as I reckon if they can withstand boiling water (or near) for tea they can stand upto a water bath. Not sure how they'd fare in the oven sans water.
Posted by: Lyn | January 19, 2006 at 09:05 AM
Oh that's great then. I guess you could have them all ready and then cook them at the last minute.They'd probably alright in the oven without a water bath but not for this dish. I guess you could also steam the pudding in a steamer.
Posted by: anthony | January 19, 2006 at 08:14 PM
Anthony, How brilliant. I never thought of doing them in a steamer! I bet that'd be great if you made little folded containers out of banana leaves and filled them with the batter and put them in the steamer! How great! Thanks for the inspiration.
Posted by: Lyn | January 19, 2006 at 10:06 PM
This kind of shoes are very especial and beautiful. I recommend it to you. Hope you like it!
Posted by: mbt shoes | July 08, 2010 at 09:00 PM
Some are charming, some are seducing, like the candy, chocolate, the cakes, and some burn everything like fire, as soon as you get near.
Posted by: Retro Jordans | July 30, 2010 at 08:21 PM