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A simple eggy flour-and-coconut-milk batter is whisked together with turmeric for colour and left to rest. A separate filling of palm jaggery is melted with grated coconut, cardamom, nutmeg and a pinch of salt until thick and glossy. Pancakes are cooked in a hot pan with a thin film of ghee, the filling spooned along one edge and rolled into a long log. Served warm, with a dusting of fresh coconut on top.
A simple custard of whole eggs, condensed milk and evaporated milk is poured over a hard caramel base and baked in a bain-marie at low temperature for a silken set. The caramel melts into a sauce as the flan chills overnight in the fridge. Tipped out onto a plate, the dark caramel runs down the sides and pools at the base.
A single batter is made from coconut milk, egg yolks, plain flour, sugar and nutmeg. The bebinca is built in a small round dish layer by layer: a ladle of batter, ghee brushed on top, grilled until the surface is dark brown, then another ladle of batter, ghee, grill, repeat. Each layer is paper-thin; the finished cake has 16-20 visible layers when sliced. Patient work but the technique is simple. Tastes of coconut, nutmeg and gentle caramel.
Rice flour, glutinous rice flour, sugar, baking powder and salt are sifted together. Coconut milk, melted butter and beaten eggs are whisked in until smooth. A banana leaf lines a cake tin (or individual ramekins), brushed with butter. The batter is poured in to 2 cm depth. Baked at 200°C 15 minutes; salted egg slices and grated cheese are pressed on top; baked another 10 minutes. Finished with butter, sugar and a thick layer of fresh grated coconut.
A wet dough is made from fresh grated coconut, sugar and water cooked together into a thick paste, then enriched with butter, semolina and egg yolks. The dough rests for several hours so the semolina can hydrate and the dough firms up. Small balls are shaped, pressed gently and baked low and slow until the bottoms turn golden and the tops set into pale-gold domes.
Split mung beans (the green hulled kind) soak optionally 4 hours (cuts cooking time in half but not essential). Beans simmer in water with knotted pandan leaves, sliced ginger and a pinch of salt for 35-45 minutes until soft and split. Palm sugar dissolves in; cooks another 5 minutes. To serve: ladle into bowls; pour thick warm coconut milk over the top. Optional toppings: a sprinkle of fried shallots, a spoon of toasted black sesame, or chunks of toasted sweet bread (the Surabaya street-cart way).
Three sweet components are prepared separately: red beans simmered until tender then mixed with sugar, split mung beans cooked until just holding shape and lightly sweetened, and pandan-flavoured agar jelly cut into small cubes. Each layer goes into a glass with crushed ice between them and a generous drizzle of sweetened coconut cream over the top.
Sticky rice is soaked, steamed and pressed around small Asian bananas (Chuối sứ), wrapped in banana leaves and grilled until the rice forms a chewy crust. A coconut cream sauce thickened with a little cornflour and salt is spooned over the split-open bundles, and toasted peanuts and sesame finish the top. The contrast of crisp-burnt outside, soft hot banana, and cool coconut sauce is the whole point.
The crepe batter: rice flour, plain flour, eggs, coconut milk, water, salt, pandan extract, whisked smooth, rested for 30 minutes. The filling (unti): palm sugar dissolves in a little water with a pandan leaf; fresh grated coconut stirs in; cooks for 5 minutes till just absorbed and sticky. Cool. Crepes cook for 1 minute per side in a small pan. Each crepe gets a heaped tablespoon of unti at one end; folds in the sides; rolls up like a cigar. Eats at room temperature.
A batter is made from rice flour, coconut milk and palm jaggery and stirred slowly over a low heat for over an hour. The mixture darkens and thickens through three distinct stages: pale and thin, golden and porridge-like, then deep mahogany and glossy with ghee separating at the edges. Knowing when to pull the pot is the only difficulty. Poured into a tray, cooled, and cut into squares; the texture sits between fudge and a firm jelly.
Firni is Afghanistan's set rice-flour pudding, served at Eid and at the end of long family lunches, scented with cardamom and rosewater and topped with crushed pistachios. The technique is simple but precise. Very finely ground rice flour (traditionally soaked basmati ground by hand, but shop-bought rice flour works well) whisks into cold milk to a slurry, gets stirred slowly into warming sweetened milk, and cooks until thick and creamy. Cardamom and rosewater at the end. Pour into shallow dishes (small individual ones, ideally) and chill until the surface sets to a light skin. Scatter with crushed pistachios or almonds and serve cold. Make it the day before so it has time to set properly.
A short, slightly tender dough made with maida, ghee and milk is rolled thin and cut into rounds. Each round is filled with a warmed mixture of khoya (or thickened condensed milk), desiccated coconut, semolina, chopped nuts and cardamom. The edges are sealed with a fluted crimp and the parcels are deep-fried low and slow until pale gold. Dusted with icing sugar while warm.
Cornflour whisks into a small amount of cold milk to a slurry. The rest of the milk warms with cream and sugar; the slurry pours in; the mixture cooks for 4-5 minutes until thick and silky. Rosewater stirs in off the heat; the lot pours into glasses to set in the fridge. The syrup of rosewater, sugar and a touch of grenadine pours over before serving.
The shaved-ice dessert of Burmese teashops, the cold sweet you order on a hot afternoon when the temperature touches 35°C. You make four textures separately and chill them: a firm green agar jelly cut into small cubes, cooked sago pearls, lightly toasted white bread cut into one-centimetre dice, and a cool sweetened coconut milk. A dark palm sugar syrup ties everything together at the bowl. The bread is the unexpected element: toasted just enough to hold its shape, it soaks up the coconut milk like a sponge and turns the bowl into something halfway between dessert and breakfast. Crushed ice piled on top is non-negotiable. Eat fast before the ice melts and floods everything.
Yellow sweet potatoes (boniato or the Caribbean white-fleshed variety if you can find them; otherwise ordinary orange sweet potatoes work) are peeled and finely grated. Combined with coconut milk, brown sugar, plain flour, raisins, mixed peel, vanilla, nutmeg, allspice and a glug of dark rum. Baked low and slow until set but still slightly wobbly in the middle. Cooled completely before slicing, this is essential, as a warm pudding falls apart.
A custard-free, fully coconut ice cream. Coconut milk (full-fat) and coconut cream combine with palm sugar, glucose syrup (or honey, keeps the texture smooth) and salt; warm together gently to dissolve the sugar. Cool fully (4 hours fridge or an ice bath). Churn in an ice-cream machine for 25-30 minutes until thick and creamy. Transfer to a container; freeze 2+ hours to firm. Serve in small bowls or, for the Bangkok cart presentation, in halved fresh coconut shells, topped with any combination of: small banana slices, sticky rice, roasted peanuts, sweet red beans, palm-sugar syrup, toasted coconut.