The direct translation of this dish is ‘bananas ordained as nuns’. In reality, they’re just bathed in warm, sweet and slightly salty coconut milk. Thai nuns’ robes are white. So, too, are the bananas, hence their ordination.
This was a favourite of mine as a child, and I still make a big bowl of it whenever I miss home or feel a bit blue. You can rustle it up so quickly if you have all the bits in. If you can’t find pandanus leaf, then either leave it out or use a drop of pandanus extract, which you can find at most Asian stores.
Serves 4–6
4–6 small bananas
200 ml/7 fl oz/scant 1 cup coconut milk
5-cm/2-inch piece of pandanus (screwpine) leaf (optional)
2 tbsp palm sugar or caster (superfine) sugar
a large pinch of salt
150 ml/5 fl oz/2/3 cup coconut cream
Peel the bananas and slice in half lengthways, then slice in half again.
Heat the coconut milk with the pandanus leaf and, when it comes to the boil, add the banana pieces, sugar and salt. Bring back to the boil and add the coconut cream.
Gently bring it back up to a simmer and let the banana cook for 3–4 minutes, until it is just giving but with a little texture.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Incredibly refreshing in hot weather, and very simple to make. I love the salt-sweet-sour combo, but you could replace the salt with 1 teaspoon of rosewater, and even scatter a few rose petals over it before serving; or leave it out completely.
Serves 4–6
4–6 sharp oranges, peeled and pith removed, reserving one of the peels
250 g/9 oz/1¼ cups caster (superfine) sugar
½–1 tsp salt
crushed ice or ice cubes, to serve
Finely slice the reserved orange peel into thin julienne strips, and set aside. Then, segment the oranges with a sharp knife, cutting each one carefully out of its membrane. Place the segments in a bowl.
Put the sugar and orange peel strips into a saucepan with 450 ml/15 fl oz/scant 2 cups water and bring to the boil, stirring gently until the sugar has dissolved. Gently simmer until the mixture has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes in all. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt until it dissolves. Set aside to cool completely.
Pour the syrup over the orange segments, then chill until needed. Serve in individual coupes over crushed ice or ice cubes.
This is a simple, yet stunning dessert. People will think you have spent hours on it… but you haven’t. It’s based on a recipe given to me by my friend Tuptim Malakul na Ayuthaya Lane. She in turn got it from the cook who worked for her family when Tuppy’s dad was the Thai Ambassador to London in the 1950s.
It is one of those dishes that demonstrate the Portuguese influence on Thai cooking, though they would have originally made the custard with duck eggs. If you want to give it a go, just replace the 4 hen’s eggs with 3 duck eggs.
Serves 4–6
1 small pumpkin or kombucha squash, about 20 cm/8 inches in diameter
150 ml/5 fl oz/2/3 cup coconut milk
85 g/3 oz/7 tbsp palm sugar or caster (superfine) sugar
a good pinch of salt
½ tsp vanilla extract or pandanus extract (optional)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Slice the top off the pumpkin or squash, so that it forms a sort of lid. Scoop out all the seeds and any loose membrane. Wipe out with damp paper towels and set aside.
In a small saucepan, heat the coconut milk and sugar over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Stir in the salt and the vanilla or pandanus extract, if using. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Pour the eggs into the coconut mixture and stir or beat well to make a custard.
Pour the custard into the hollowed-out pumpkin, then pop it into a steamer. Put the ‘lid’ next to it, so that steams too. Steam for about 45 minutes, or until an inserted knife or skewer comes out clean.
Set aside to cool, then chill until ready to serve.
Slice before serving – the whole slice is edible.
The word tuptim translates both as rubies and as pomegranates. You can probably guess why, but neither features here. Instead, water chestnuts are dyed red to resemble them. This is a very pretty dessert, and one that is relatively simple to make. (Behold the chemistry as the tapioca flour coats each ‘ruby’ with a glossy jelly!) However, if you have an issue with red food colouring, as some people do, you can leave it out. Though what you’d call this dish then, I’ve no idea!
Serves 4–6
1 x 400-g/14-oz can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
red food colouring (optional)
80 g/2¾ oz/generous ½ cup tapioca flour
120 g/4¼ oz/generous ½ cup sugar
200 ml/7 fl oz/scant 1 cup coconut milk
a small knotted pandanus (screwpine) leaf, or a drop of pandanus extract or jasmine extract (optional)
crushed ice, to serve
In a bowl, toss the chopped water chestnuts together with the red food colouring, if using, until they attain a bright ruby hue. Then, toss them with the tapioca flour until they are well coated. Toss them in a sieve (strainer) to get rid of any excess flour, making sure each piece is well coated, or you may get colour leaching later…
Bring about 500 ml/17 fl oz/generous 2 cups of water to the boil in a large saucepan. Add the water chestnuts and simmer for about 1–2 minutes – they are done when they rise to the surface. Drain and immediately refresh them in iced water. Allow them to get nice and cold otherwise they will start to stick together. Then, with your hands, remove from the water, separating any that may have become stuck together, and place on paper towels to dry thoroughly.
In a small saucepan, simmer 125 ml/4 fl oz/½ cup of water with the sugar until it has dissolved and is a little syrupy. Add the coconut milk and the pandanus or jasmine, if using. Heat, but don’t allow to boil.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Place in the refrigerator to chill.
Place crushed ice in serving coupes. Divide the water chestnuts equally between them, and pour the coconut syrup evenly over the top to serve.
Ian Kittichai is one of my Thai Food Heroes, and quite simply one of the finest Thai chefs I know. He and his wife Sarah are among my dearest pals in Bangkok. He began cooking with his mother for the family’s food cart every morning before school, and had no intention of cooking professionally until he came to London to study, working as a kitchen porter to make ends meet, and practising his English with the chefs in the kitchen. It was when he covered for a cook who hadn’t turned up for a shift that his talent was spotted, and the hotel sponsored him through catering college. From there, he trained classically in Sydney before embarking on a trail-blazing career.
This simple recipe embodies his approach to Thai food, drawing inspiration from Thai cuisine and applying it to Western techniques. You can see this most clearly at his flagship Bangkok restaurant, Issaya Siamese Club. In this case, he takes the Royal Thai tradition of blooming jasmine blossom in water for cooking, and applies it to a classic Western dessert. Clever stuff.
Serves 4
1 g/heaped ½ tsp agar-agar powder or 3 g/1½ tsp agar-agar flakes
275 ml/9 fl oz/scant 1¼ cups double (heavy) cream
40 g/1½ oz/3 heaped tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
2–3 drops of jasmine essence
your choice of fruits for a fruit salad, to serve
In a small saucepan, bring the agar-agar and the cream to the boil over a medium heat. Add the sugar and stir until it has completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the jasmine essence. Divide equally between four ramekins and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, or until the flan has set.
Gently turn out on to chilled plates (see tip) and serve with a fresh fruit salad on the side.
~ Ian says that to make the unmoulding easier, quickly dip the ramekins into hot water and then shake it upright at a 45° angle so that the air gets to the edges and they pull away from the sides. ~
This recipe comes from Jane Alty, who is the chef-proprietor of The Begging Bowl restaurant in south-east London. Jane comes from New Zealand; she fell in love with Thai food and cooking, and trained with David Thompson in both London and Bangkok, before opening her own place.
The genius thing about this recipe is… you don’t need an ice-cream machine. It’s perfection just popped into a Tupperware container in the freezer. The joy! Jane tells me this was by design. When she opened the restaurant, she had no space for any more equipment – and voila! – this was born.
As much as I love this ice cream on its own, it’s my guilty pleasure to use it for a Thai-style affogato, pouring a shot of good espresso over the top of it. Here, I add a few crisp, buttered croutons to remind me of the toast and condensed milk breakfast I used to relish as a child. Thanks Jane!
Serves 6–8
7 egg yolks
50 g/1¾ oz/¼ cup caster (superfine) sugar
½ tsp sea salt
1 x 400-ml/14-fl oz can of condensed milk
½ pandanus (screwpine) leaf, knotted, or a drop of pandanus extract (optional)
500 ml/18 fl oz/generous 2 cups double (heavy) cream
for the buttered croutons
4–6 slices store-bought, thick-cut, sliced white bread
salted butter, for spreading
In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar and salt until thick and pale yellow.
In a bain marie (a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, where the base of the bowl does not touch the water), heat the condensed milk with the pandanus leaf, if using, until it’s very hot, but not boiling.
Remove the pandanus leaf from the milk, then pour the milk over the eggs, whisking constantly until fully incorporated. Return the mixture to the bain marie, and stir over the heat until it’s thick and custard-y. Remove from the heat and transfer to the fridge to chill the mixture completely.
When chilled, in a separate bowl, whisk the cream until it has doubled in volume. Fold the cream and egg mixture together, making sure there are no lumps, and freeze in a covered container.
To make the buttered croutons, preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Butter both sides of the bread, trim the crusts and cut into cubes. Scatter over a baking sheet and pop into the hot oven. Bake for about 5–8 minutes. Turn, and cook for another 5 minutes, or until crisp. Keep your eye on them – they can burn suddenly.
Remove from the oven and set aside to drain and cool on paper towels.
Serve on top of the ice cream.
This recipe happened by accident – the fickle finger of fate. I could not find a ripe, unstringy mango for love or money, but I wanted these flavours for a dessert. Then I remembered using cans when I lived in New York, because (again) I couldn’t find fresh. They work a treat, and make this incredibly easy.
Serves 6–8
zest of 3 limes
100 ml/3½ fl oz/scant ½ cup fresh lime juice
a good handful of Thai basil
150 g/5½ oz/¾ cup caster (superfine) sugar
750 g/1 lb 10 oz (drained weight)canned mango in its juice (about 3 cans)
In a small saucepan, gently heat 150 ml/5 fl oz/2/3 cup water with the zest of 2 limes, the lime juice, basil and the sugar, until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and simmer for 2 minutes to infuse the syrup. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Strain the syrup, discarding the basil and zest, then add the remaining fresh lime zest. Pour the syrup into a food processor along with the mango, and blitz until smooth. Churn in an ice-cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Turn the sorbet out into a lidded container and store in the freezer.
Remove the sorbet from the freezer about 5–10 minutes before you want to serve it.
This is a very refreshing dessert that also happens to be vegan, something that has helped me out on many occasions when somebody’s new boyfriend or girlfriend has arrived for dinner and only then dropped that particular bombshell. It’s also simple and bloody delicious. Serve as is, or with mango to make a mango split.
For an extra blow out, pop a couple of scoops into a squishy white roll with a few peanuts, some corn kernels and gingko nuts scattered on top of the ice cream, and a drizzle of condensed milk – very Thai!
Serves 6–8
2 x 400-ml/14-fl oz cans of coconut milk
100 g/3½ oz/½ cup caster (superfine) sugar or palm sugar
a very good pinch of sea salt
150 ml/5 fl oz/2/3 cup coconut cream
In a saucepan, mix one can of coconut milk with the caster or palm sugar and the salt over a low heat, and stir gently until dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining can of coconut milk and the coconut cream, making sure they are well combined – I use a small whisk sometimes, just because. Set aside to cool, then refrigerate until cold.
When cold, churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze.
Remove the ice cream from the freezer about 10 minutes before you plan to serve it.
Ice creams and sorbets are hugely popular in Thailand – and why not? They are the perfect antidote to the heat. This is an icy, sweet-sour crush, fragranced with subtle rosewater – perfect after a spicy meal.
Serves 4–6
2 x 565-g/1 lb 4-oz cans of rambutan in syrup
juice of 2 limes
2 tsp rosewater
Drain both cans of rambutan, reserving the syrup from one can.
Blitz the rambutans in a food processor with the reserved syrup, the lime juice and the rose water. Pour the prepared mixture into a fairly shallow glass or plastic container and place in the freezer, covered. Also pop a fork into the freezer to chill.
After about 1 hour, uncover and, with the now-chilled fork, scrape all the frozen outer ice crystal edges in towards the main body of the mixture. Re-cover and freeze again for another 30–40 minutes, then repeat the process. You may have to do this a few times. It should take about 3 hours. You want to end up with a beautiful pale, snow-like mass.
Keep covered in the freezer until ready to serve. You can make this up to a day before you want to use it, but no more than that.
When I started writing this book, every single one of my friends told me I had to include mango and sticky rice! People are obsessed with it. Please, please make sure you make it with decent, ripe mangoes, or it really isn’t worth it.
Serves 4–6
250 g/9 oz sticky rice (cooked following the method on here)
250 ml/8½ fl oz/generous 1 cup coconut milk
60 g/2 oz/5 tbsp palm sugar or caster (superfine) sugar
a good pinch of salt
2–4 ripe mangoes, peeled, pitted and sliced
2–3 tbsp coconut cream, warmed, for drizzling
sesame seeds, toasted (optional)
While the sticky rice is still warm, in a separate pan, heat the coconut milk, sugar and salt until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the mixture over the warm sticky rice and stir to incorporate thoroughly. Cover and set aside for 5–10 minutes so that all the coconut can be absorbed.
Serve the still warm rice alongside the mango slices, topped with a little drizzle of warmed coconut cream and some toasted sesame seeds, if you like.
