Food for Thought

The first week of the New Year and here I am a little slow in posting, I guess the last few weeks of outdoor events have finally caught up with me. I feel a bit better today, and hope to reply to comments and visit my favorite blogs soon.

It’s obvious that one of my New Year’s resolutions is not “to loose weight” since I plan to cook more, but I do have to be active so that I won’t pack the extra pounds, I don’t need to gain either. My dad bought Cassava from the flea market last week and my sister and I made Cassava Coconut Flakes Dessert today.  This is our first time trying and I didn’t do a good job in photographing the process. We were so thrilled to see that it looks and tastes like the real dessert and it is not as hard to make as we thought.

My sister steamed the cassava battered mixed with coconut milk and sugar for 50 minutes, let it cool, cut and rolled in coconut flakes.

Kannom Kaopoad

My second sister saw Kanom Fak Thong or Pumpkin Pudding dessert in a Thai Magazine and thought it would be good to give it a try. The ingredients suggested that we could substitute the pumpkin with corn and since she has some fresh corns at home we decided to make Kanom Kaopoad or Corn Pudding instead.

Here are the ingredients in English.

1 1/2  cups of grated pumpkin (we substitute with corns)
3/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup coconut cream

Topping:

3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup salt (we used less)

Mix rice flour, tapioca flour, and corns (or pumpkins) together. Add coconut cream, salt, sugar and shredded coconut.  Mix well together until the sugar is dissolved.

For topping mix shredded coconut with salt.

We decided to use my dad’s banana leaves that he has in the freezer to make banana leaf cups. My sister used a small bow as a measuring size and I used 2 round panels letting the grain to go in the opposite direction (see picture below) to strengthen the banana leaf cup. I pinned 4 sides with toothpicks.

Then steam the Kanom Kaopoad in banana leaf cups for 20 minutes. I took the lid off to take picture, it should be covered when steamed.

I have to say that the banana leaf cup brings out the flavor of the Kanom Kaopoad. You could use small ceramic bowls for this also, the Kanom would come out like the ones in the Thai magazine.

Then we tried to make some with the Kanom Krok tray.

It doesn’t taste as good and kind of tough to chew.  I like the steamed version better.

As for Lunch on Saturday my sister made Pho Shrimp Kai for us, it was delicious.

Kanom Krok

Canon T2i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens, Manual, f/4, 1/160sec, ISO 800, focal length 37mm, evaluative metering

Kanom Krok is a Thai Coconut Pudding. I guess you can call it a Lao Coconut Pudding if you like since we also have this in Laos.  My sister and I attempted to make this today with the pancake puffs cast iron that I bought from a flea market for $2 several years back.  You can buy one for $16.75+shipping at Amazon and it works very well.

Canon T2i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens, Manual, f/5.6, 1/60sec, ISO 3200, focal length 34mm, evaluative metering

The ingredients,

1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup Glutinous rice flour
2 cups water
1/3 cup cooked steamed rice
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 green onions thinly sliced

Mix 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/2 cup Glutinous rice flour with 1 cup water in a bowl. Mix well and let it sit for at least an hour.

As for the cooked steamed rice, mix 1/3 cup cooked steamed rice with 1/2 cup grated coconut in a blender, add salt, sugar, then add 1 cup water. Blend together until finely mixed. Then pour this into the bowl of mixed flour and water, add sliced spring onions and mix well by hand.

Canon T2i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens, Manual, f/5.6, 1/80sec, ISO 3200, focal length 35mm, evaluative metering

I cooked on the stove at medium heat, sprayed the cast iron with Pam for nonstick. The cast iron didn’t come with a lid, and I covered it with a pot lid. This one in the photo is glass, I switched to a stainless steel pot lid later and it seems to work better.

Canon T2i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens, Manual, f/5.6, 1/25sec, ISO 3200, focal length 36mm, evaluative metering

Cook until the cups turn slightly brown and crisp around the edge.  We were very happy with the result, it tasted just like the ones that we bought at the temple during the week of July 4th festival.

Canon T2i, EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens, Manual, f/5.6, 1/25sec, ISO 3200, focal length 36mm, evaluative metering