Desserts Archives

Jack Fruit Ta Ko ( Ta Go Ka Noon )

Ta Ko, you've seen before in a different form here. Here is a variation in bi-tua leaves with jack fruit (shown at the back in the photograph). Ta Ko (also known as Tahko) is a traditional Thai dessert with a sweet layer and a salty topping.

Ingredients
200 gms Mung Bean Flour
800 ml Water
700 gms Sugar
100 gms Rice Flour
880 ml Coconut Milk
200 gms Jack Fruit (Chopped)
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Bi Tua Leaves (For Wrapping)

Preparation
1. Use the bi tua leaves and make little trays (gar tong), you will find it easier if you use a stapler to do this.
2. Mix the mung bean flour with the water in a saucepan.
3. Heat slowly, stirring continuously until the flour has cooked, thickened and gone clear. This can take 25-30 minutes.
4. When it's nearly cooked, add 500 gms sugar and stir until it is dissolved.
5. Stir in the chopped jack fruit.
6. Fill the bi tua trays half full with the mixture and leave to cool.
7. In a saucepan, mix the rice flour, coconut milk, salt, and remaining sugar. Stir slowly over the heat until the flour has cooked through and the sugar dissolved and the mixture is thick.
8. Spoon this mixture onto the top of the earlier layer.
9. Leave to cool and serve.




Bananas in Coconut Syrup ( Grury Churm )



A very simple dessert, bananas in a sweet sauce with slightly salty coconut milk. It's typical in Thailand to add salt to desserts to balance the sweetness. For extra richness use coconut cream, the thicker top layer of coconut milk.

Ingredients
4-5 Bananas
50 gms Sugar
200 ml Water
50 ml Coconut Milk
1/3 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation
1. Boil the water with the sugar until dissolved.
2. Cut the bananas into halves and add to the boiling syrup and cook for 5 minutes. Set the sauce and bananas to one side.
3. In another saucepan, heat the coconut milk gently together with the salt. You just want to warm through the coconut milk and dissolve the salt, no more. Do not let it boil!
4. To serve place some of the banana in a dish with some of the sugar syrup and spoon over the warm coconut milk.




Kidney Bean Balls in Ginger Sauce ( Bour Loy Nam Khik )


Today is sweet ball day! There are many desserts we have made from balls in sauce. This one is sweet balls contain kidney beans and are served in a sweet ginger sauce. In the photograph top left you can one ball I cut open.

Ingredients
100 gms Sticky Rice Flour
50 gms Rice Flour
2 Tablespoons Cassava Starch
100 ml Rose Water
50 gms Kidney Beans (Canned or Boil hard for 10 Minutes!)
100 gms Sugar
2 Tablespoons Toasted Sasame Seeds
Water for Boiling
Cool Water

Ingredients for the Syrup
200 gms Sugar
200 ml Water

Ingredients for Ginger Water
20 gms Ginger Root
400 ml Water

Preparation
1. Blend the kidney beans into a purée with a food processor or blender. Put the purée into a saucepan and heat over a medium heat to thicken the beans and remove some of the water. Leave to cool.
2. Mix the rice flour, starch and sticky rice flour together. Add enough of the rose water to form a dough and knead it until it is smooth and well mixed.
3. When the kidney beans a cool, pinch off pieces of kidney bean paste and roll to form 1cm balls. Then take each ball and roll it in the sesame seeds. Do this until all of the bean is used up.
4. Put a pan of water on to boil.
5. Pinch off some of the flour dough, flatten it in your hand to form a disc about 4cms across. Put a bean ball inside and fold up the edges to envelop the bean ball. Repeat until all of your bean balls are wrapped up in the flour dough.
6. Drop the balls into the boiling water, they will float to the top when cooked, it only takes a minute or two. Once they are cooked, remove them and drop them into the cool water.
7. Make a sugar syrup by placing the sugar and water in a pan and heating until the sugar is dissolved, then leave to cool.
8. To make the ginger sauce, boil water, add the chopped ginger and boil until the ginger smell is released, then remove the ginger from the water.
9. To serve, put some of the balls in a bowl, add enough syrup to sweeten it to your personal taste, then spoon enough of the warm ginger sauce over the top to drown the balls.

From Appon's Thai Food.