Rambutans & Rice Worms in Coconut Sauce ( Lot Chong Poonlamai )

This dessert is 'worms' (really dessert noodles made from sticky rice flour), together with Thai rambutan fruit, all swimming in coconut sauce and rambutan juice. To make the noodle, you will need a piping bag to extrude the noodle mix into the 'worm' shape. Serve with plenty of the juice and coconut sauce, for the photograph we used only a little so you can see the green noodle, but the dessert is better if you drown the noodles in the sauce. If you can't find rose water, you can change the flavour to vanilla by using vanilla essence in water.

Ingredients

100 gms Sticky Rice Flour
400 ml Rose Water
6 Drops Green Food Coloring
400 ml Cold Water
100 gms Tinned Rambutans in Juice
200 gms Sugar
100 ml Coconut Milk
100 gms Ice

Preparation

1. In a saucepan, mix the colour with 200 ml (half!) of the rose water, add the sticky rice flour and cook on a low heat stirring continuously.
2. The rice become very thick and sticky, keep stirring and mixing until it is well cooked.
3. Spoon the mix into a piping bag.
4. Fill a bowl with the cold water, add the ice, and using the piping bag, squeeze out short (4cm) worm shapes into the ice water.
5. Boil the sugar with the remaining rose water to form a syrup.

To Serve

In a bowl, place some rambutan, some of the green noodles, some of the rose water syrup, the coconut milk and some of the juice from the can of rambutan. Add some crushed ice on the top.

Candied Cassava ( Montad Chuame )

Just as you have candied (glacéd) lemon and candied orange in the west, so we have candied cassava root in Asia. Once candied the cassava root is chewier and stickier than other candied fruit, due to its natural guminess.

Ingredients for 4 People

500 gms Cassava
300 gms Sugar
250 ml Water

Preparation

1. Mix sugar with water in a sauce pan, heat until the sugar dissolves.
2. Peel the cassava and chop it into 4cm pieces.
3. Add the cassava into the pan with boiling sugar and cook on a low heat until the sugar just begins to caramelize. Approximately 2 hours.
4. If the cassava has not been properly candied, add more water and continue cooking.