This Thai dessert is easy but messy to make. The dominant flavour is the sweetened coconut milk and it should be served warm for best results. The balls can be prepared hours ahead of time and stored in cold water, but the coconut sauce should be made just before serving. For presentation, we have added food colouring, however this is optional.

Ingredients for 2-3 People
For the Balls
124 gms Sticky (Glutinous) Rice Flour
120 ml Hot Water
6 Drops Food Colouring
A Little Vegetable Oil

For the Sauce
100 ml Coconut Milk
Pinch of Salt
3 Tablespoons Sugar

Preparation of the Balls
1. Put a large pan of water on the heat to boil.
2. Pour the hot water into the sticky rice flour.
3. Mix and knead into a dough.
4. Add more flour if the mixture is too sticky.
5. Divide the dough into 3 sections for colouring (this is not necessary if you do not want to colour the dough).
6. Add 2 drops of food colouring to each of the 3 sections. We used red green and yellow food colouring.
7. Knead the food colouring into the 3 lumps of dough separately, you will find it easier to oil your hands with the vegetable oil to prevent it sticking to your hands.
8. Roll the dough between your hands into a sausage, and pinch off lumps of the dough and roll them into a ball in your hand.
9. This mixture will make approximately 24 balls (6 balls for each of the 3 colours).
10. Drop the balls into the boiling water.
11. The balls take approximately 3-5 minutes to cook, and will float to the top of the pan when cooked.

Preparation for the Sauce
1. Put the coconut milk, sugar and salt into a pan.
2. Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture warm.
3. Do not boil!

Serving
Serve the balls in a bowl together with the warm sauce.
The sweetness comes from the sauce, so there should be ample sauce for each ball.

This is a typical sweet coconut and bean dessert from Thailand, it is black soya beans soaked, steamed, and served in a sweet coconut sauce. This is an ideal vegetarian dish as the beans are full of protein and it can be used to follow a vegetable dish. It is even suitable for vegans.

Ingredients for 2 people
100 gms Dry Black Soya Bean
150 mls Coconut milk
50 gms Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation
1. Soak the black soya bean in water overnight. They will swell to approximately double their size.
2. Place them in a chinese style steamer and steam for 30 minutes.
3. Put the sugar, coconut milk and salt, together in a pan and boil on a medium heat until the sugar dissolves.
4. Serve the beans in a small dish covered with the warm coconut sugar mix.
5. They can also be served cold, but warm is preferable.

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.

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.

A bite sized crunchy sweet snack made from coconut milk and cassava starch that is baked slowly. If you want to store these, they should be kept in an airtight container. You may find a locked safe is a better place to keep them, in our house they seem to disappear as soon as I make them.

Ingredients
100 gms Cassava Starch
230 ml Coconut Milk
150 gms Sugar
2 Eggs Yolks
1 Teaspoon Butter

Preparation
1. Boil the coconut milk with the sugar on a medium heat until dissolved.
2. Turn the heat off and mix in the eggs yolks.
3. Put the cassava starch into a dry frying pan and dry-fry for 20-30 seconds over a high heat (stir constantly). This will give the starch a slight toasted flavour.
4. Add the starch to the saucepan and stir it in over a low heat - until it forms a thick sticky dough.
5. Grease a baking tray with a little butter.
6. Take off pieces of the dough and press them into 2cm diameter balls and place them on the tray.
7. Cook in an over at 170 degrees celsius until brown, (1 hour is a typical baking time for these).

Serve With
Hot Tee or Coffee

Sometimes the simplest dishes are the best, this dessert requires fresh ripe melon, either gala melon or cantaloupe are ideal for this. It is simply melon and coconut, the coconut adds a richer taste to the melon and the two flavours work extremely well together.

Ingredients
1 Slice of Melon
Crushed Ice
Coconut Milk

Preparation
1. Cut the melon into cubes.
2. Crush the ice and add some pieces to the melon.
3. Pour coconut milk over the top.

We eat a lot of vegetables in desserts in Thailand, including potato. The starch in potato tastes sweet when eaten, enzymes in your mouth break the starch into sugars, so it's not such an unusual thing to have for a dessert.

Ingredients for 2 People
2 Potatoes
150 ml Water
150 gms Sugar
100 ml Coconut Milk
1/4 Salt

Preparation
1. Peeling the potatoes and chop into bite sized cubes.
2. Steam for 10 minutes until fully cooked.
3. Boil the water with the sugar, until dissolved and leave to cool.
4. Boil the coconut milk with the salt for the salt to dissolve and the coconut milk to get hot.
5. Serve the potatoes in a bowl, with the hot coconut milk poured over them, and pour over enough syrup to make it as sweet as you like.

Another way to use up left over pumpkin, the pumpkin is cut into pieces and cooked in a coconut sauce and topped off with sugar syrup. This is typical Thai flavours.

Ingredients for 2 People
100 gms Pumpkin
200 ml Coconut Milk
300 gms Sugar
200 ml Water
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation
1. Peel the skin off the pumpkin and cut into bite sized pieces.
2. Mix the sugar with the water and boil until the sugar dissolves. Add the pumpkin and cook for 10 minutes.
3. In a separate saucepan, simmer the coconut milk with salt for 1 minute and set aside to cool.
4. To serve place the pumpkin & a little syrup in a bowl and top off the coconut milk.

These little 'jewels' are made from salad radishes and are crunchy in the centre like pomegranate seeds. You can also use apple if you prefer, but for true authenticity use water chestnuts, which you can buy in a tin from Asian grocers. In the above photograph only the jewels are shown, the syrup and coconut milk weren't added so you can see the sparkle of the jewels.

Ingredients
100 gms Cassava Starch
50 gms Radish, Apple or Water Chestnuts
100 ml Coconut Milk
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
200 ml Water
200 gms Sugar
200 gms Crushed Ice
Beetroot Water (For Colouring)

Preparation
1. Chop the radish into small squares and soak in beetroot water (the water fresh beetroot is packed in) for 3-4 hours to colour the radish pieces. If you do not have beetroot water, you can use a red food colouring instead.
2. Drain the radish pieces and add them to the cassava starch.
3. Boil water and add the radish pieces to the boiling water. They will swell and cook, it's normal to leave a little uncooked centre pieces to give the crunch. Then drop them into cool water.
4. Boil 200 ml water with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved and leave it to cool, to from a syrup.
5. Into a separate pan, put coconut milk, and add the salt. Boil for 1/2 minutes and leave it to cool.
6. To serve, place some of the radish jewels into a serving bowl, add some of the coconut milk, some syrup to make it as sweet as you prefer, and some crushed ice.

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.

These don't look like much but they have a great coconut taste. The different shapes add a texture too. But how to show that in a photograph!? They may not look much, but give them a try and you'll see.

Ingredients
50 gms Sticky Rice Flour
25 gms Rice Flour
1 Tablespoons Cassava Starch
50 ml Rose Water
200 gms Sugar
250 ml Water
200 ml Coconut Milk
A Pinch of Salt
Water for Boiling
A Bowl of Cool Water

Preparation
1. Mix the rice flour, sticky rice flour and starch together. Add enough of the rose water to form a stiff dough and knead it a little.
2. Bring a pan of water to the boil.
3. Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll them into worm shapes and small balls and drop them into the boiling water to cook. They cook quickly, typically one or two minutes depending on size.
4. Scoop out of the hot water and drop into the cool water to cool down.
5. Make a sugar syrup by adding the sugar, to water. Add just enough water to cover the sugar, then heat until the sugar is just dissolved and leave to cool.
6. Put the coconut milk on the heat, add a pinch of salt and just warm it till steam starts coming off, you just want to warm it.
7. To serve put the worms and balls in a bowl and pour the warm coconut milk over it and a spoonful or two of sugar syrup to sweeten to your tastes.

It's very typical in Thailand to eat desserts made with sweet vegetables. They are not as sweet as western desserts, but they have plenty of flavour. This one has sweet corn in a sauce made from tapioca pearls. It's quite difficult to see the beads of tapioca in this photograph, I had several attempts at photographing it, but they just didn't show clearly.

Ingredients
200 gms Tapioca Pearls
250 ml Water
40 gms Canned Sweet Corn
100 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Put the water into a saucepan, bring to the boil.
2. Add the tapioca, and boil for 20 minutes until the tapioca becomes transparent.
3. Add the sugar and cook for 5 more minutes.
4. Add the sweet corn and serve warm.

These are the classic sesame seed sweets, toffee with toasted sesame seeds similar to peanut brittle. The best way to make these is with a sugar thermometer to get the correct temperature (150 degrees celsius), an alternative method is to have a bowl of cold water and as you heat the sugar, drop a little into the water and look for the brittle toffee stage.

Ingredients
40 gms Toasted Sesame Seeds
100 gms Brown Sugar
50 ml Water

Preparation
1. Spread out sheet of greaseproof paper onto a flat surface.
2. Put the brown sugar into a sauce pan with just enough water to dissolve it.
3. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved, then keep heating. As the water boils off, the temperature will exceed 100 degrees celsius.
4. Heat to 150 degrees celsius, a sugar thermometer helps, or use the bowl of water mentioned in the introduction.
5. Stir in the sesame seeds, take spoonfuls of the mixture and spoon them into discs on the greaseproof paper.
6. Leave to cool.

I have two puddings for you today, this is yellow soya in a sticky sauce. Normally served with coconut milk, but for extra richness you can do what I've done for the photograph and add a spoonful of coconut cream (the rich top layer of the coconut milk) instead.

Ingredients
50 gms Green Soya Beans (Or Yellow if you can get them)
200 gms Sugar
300 gms Water
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
100 ml Coconut Milk

Preparation
1. Soak the green soya beans in warm water overnight and remove the skins. The process is explained here.
2. Steam the yellow soya for 45 minutes.
3. Put 300 ml water into a saucepan, add the sugar and boil.
4. Mix the cassava starch with 3 tablespoons water, and stir into the sugar water to thicken it.
5. Add the yellow soya and stir it in.
6. Serve warm with a tablespoon of coconut milk poured over it.

These pancakes are a Thai favorite and very very rich. There are many types of fillings, for the photograph I've made two, taro filled ones at the back and cream filled ones at the front. Another common fillings is shredded young coconut. Prepare the filling before you start the pancakes, as you make each pancake you will fill them and roll them up.

Ingredients
100 gms Wheat Flour
3 Teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Egg
4 Tablespoons Sugar
300 ml Evaporated Milk
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Preparation
1. Sift the flour mix and bicarbonate of soda together.
2. Whip an egg until fluffy, add the sugar, salt and blend. Add the evaporated milk, flour, butter, and vanilla essence and continue blending. Leave 20 minutes to rest.
3. You will need a good clean flat non stick frying pan for this, a little butter while frying can help, but these pancakes are very soft and need to be fried carefully.
4. Heat the frying pan. Pour a small amount of the mixture onto the pan and use a spoon to shape it into a circle and fill any holes. For this recipe you want small pancakes, no more than 8cms across.
5. Fry gently until the pancake is brown, then turn it over. While the other side is cooking, spread some of the filling onto the pancake, then roll it up and set it on a serving plate. Serve warm.

Ingredients for Cream Filling
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
100 ml Water
100 ml Evaporated Milk
5 Tablespoons Butter
2 Tablespoons Corn Flour

Preparation for Cream Filling
1. Whip the egg with the sugar and salt.
2. Add the water, evaporated milk, butter, and corn flour and put into a saucepan and cook over a low heat until the cream is mixed and thick, then leave to cool.

Ingredients Taro Filling
50 gms Taro
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation for Taro Filling
1. Steam the taro until cooked.
2. Purée the taro in a blender together with the sugar.
3. Heat the taro in a saucepan over a low heat, to drive off excess water and thicken it. Once it's thickened, leave it to cool.

Inside these balls made from boiled rice flour are soft sugar caramel and coconut centres, eaten in a sweet ginger syrup.

Ingredients, Balls
100 gms Brown Sugar
50 gms Desiccated Coconut
20 gms Toasted Sesame Seeds
100 gms Sticky Rice Flour
50 gms Rice Flour
20 gms Cassava Starch
( Save some cassava starch to dust your hands with to stop the balls sticking)

Preparation, Ball
1. Into a saucepan, put 50ml water and the brown sugar and boil until the sugar becomes a very thick sticky caramel. You will need to form balls with this mixture so it cannot be too runny. Take off the heat, mix in the sesame seeds and ground coconut and leave to cool.
2. Take teaspoons of the sugar mixture out and roll them in your hands into small balls, approximately 1cm across.
3. Mix the 2 flours and starch together, mix in 50ml water and knead until it forms dough.
3. Cut the dough into small pieces approximately 30gms, and roll them in your hands. If the balls are a little sticky, dust your hands with more cassava starch.
4. Flatten the dough in your hand, place one of the sugar balls in the middle and fold up the dough so that it completely enclosed the sugar.
5. At this point you can store the balls for future eating, only cooking them when needed.
6. To cook the ball, boil a saucepan of water, drop in the balls into the boiling water. When they are cooked they will float to the surface (approximately 1 minute).
7. Eat warm in a ginger sauce.

Ingredients Ginger Sauce
20 gms Ginger Root
20 gms Lemon Grass
500 ml Water
4 Tablespoons Sugar

Preparation, Ginger Sauce
1. Boil the water, add the ginger root, lemon grass and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Add the sugar and continue simmering for 2 minutes.
3. Leave to cool a little then ladel some of the balls and sauce into a dish to eat.

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.

This is literally a sandwich cake! In Thailand we often eat bread as a dessert with sweet sauces spread on it. For this recipe I've taken one of these sauces and made it into a layer cake. You can also make sandwiches of this and eat it as a picnic food or as a children's treats.

Ingredients for 2 Cakes
250 m Coconut Milk
150 gms Sugar
200 ml Evaporated Milk
3 Eggs
3 Tablespoons Wheat Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
2-3 Drops Green Food Color
8-10 Slices of Bread
Desiccated Coconut for Garnish

Preparation
1. Whip the eggs to mix them, add all the other ingredients and whip together for 1 minute.
2. This needs to be cooked in a bain marie (a small pan sitting in a larger pan of boiling water so that it cooks gently). Cook slowly for 15 minutes, stirring continuously.
3. Let it cool a little, for this cake, you can eat this topping warm or cold!
4. Cut the crusts off the bread. Layer slices of bread, and sauce alternately, with a top layer of the sauce.
5. Dust with dried coconut.

Not so much red as brown! These sticky rice sweet cakes are made into paper cups and eaten as a dessert. If you can't get hold of the coconut sugar you can substitute extra brown sugar, but it's not as good.

Ingredients
200 gms Sticky Rice
100 gms Brown Sugar
50 gms Coconut Sugar
200 ml Coconut Milk
100 ml Water
2 Tablespoons Toasted Sesame Seeds

Preparation
1. Soak the sticky rice in water overnight.
2. Steam for 10 minutes (until cooked) then leave to cool.
3. In a saucepan, boil the water, brown sugar and coconut sugar, and reduce it until it nearly caramelizes.
4. Add the coconut milk and cook slowly for 3 minutes, stirring to mix.
5. Add the sticky rice, and stir until the mix become sticky. Leave to cool.
6. Spoon into paper cups and garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

The pumpkin for this recipe is soaked overnight in a solution of dissolved limestone, it makes the outside crunchy when the pumpkin is boiled and the pumpkin won't discolour so quickly as untreated pumpkin.

Ingredients
50 gms Chopped Pumpkin
4-5 Tablespoons Limestone Dissolved in Water
300 ml Water
150 gms Sugar
50 gms Crunshed Ice

Preparation
1. Cut the pumpkin into pieces.
2. Soak the pumpkin pieces in the limestone water, top up with just enough water to cover the pumpkin pieces. If there is some limestone powder in the bottom of the bowl it helps keep dissolved limestone in the water.
3. Boil 300 ml water with the sugar until dissolved.
4. Boil the pumpkin in this sugar syrup for 10 minutes to just cook it through, leave in the liquid to cool.
5. Serve the pumpkin with some of the syrup mixed with crushed ice.

Ingredients
50 gms Taro
300 Water For Boiling
200 ml Coconut Milk
100 ml Water
150 Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Limestone Water

Preparation
1. Peel and chop the taro into small squares, soak in the limestone water and top up with extra water just to cover it.
2. Rinse the taro and cook in boiling water for 20 minutes.
3. In a separate saucepan, mix the sugar and 100 ml water boil until the sugar has dissolved, then leave to cool to form a light syrup.
4. Warm the coconut milk in a saucepan, until its just warmed through and steaming.
5. Serve the taro in a bowl, with warmed coconut milk and some of the sugar syrup poured over it.

This is the Thai version of rice pudding made with black sticky rice and coconut milk. I like to serve it, as in the photograph above, by pressing the rice into a decorative mould and pouring the coconut milk over the top. But you can also just spoon it into a bowl and pour the coconut over it.

Ingredients
150 gms Black Sticky Rice
250 ml Water
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Corn Flour or Cassava Starch
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
100 ml Coconut Milk

Preparation
1. Soak the sticky rice in water overnight.
2. Drain and rince twice.
3. Steam for 15 minutes in a Thai rice steamer.
4. Place into a saucepan with the water, and boil for 12-15 minutes until the rice is soft.
5. Stir in the sugar and salt, mix the corn flour with a little water and stir that in to thicken the rice.
6. Continue heating and stirring the rice until it is thick, then spoon it into the moulds, or simply spoon into bowls.
7. Turn the moulds out onto plates.
8. Warm the coconut milk through and pour a little over the rice.

This is a sweet rice dish with a savoury pork hair garnish, very typical of the sweet/salt contrasts in Thai cuisine. However, you can omit the pork hair if you wish and eat it as a sweet dessert. You can also stir the pork hair into the egg topping if you prefer, I like to just add a lock of pork hair for the intense savoury taste followed by the sweetness of the pudding.

Ingredients for Base
200 gms Black Sticky Rice
1 Tablespoons Corn Flour
200 ml Water
1 Teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Sugar

Ingredients for The Topping
4 Eggs
4 Tablespoons Coconut Milk
150 gms Sugar
Golden Pork Hair

Preparation
1. Soak the black sticky rice overnight, then cook it by steaming for 10 minutes.
2. Place the rice into a saucepan, add the water and boil for 10 minutes, this will soften the rice. You can boil longer if you want softer rice. Add salt, sugar. Finally mix the corn flour with a little water and stir it in, heat until the mixture thickens, then leave to cool. You can spoon this into bowls, or I like to spoon it into moulds and place it in the fridge.
3. To make the topping, whip the eggs with the sugar and coconut milk.
4. Pour into bowls suitable for steaming, then steam in a chinese steamer for 5-10 minutes until cooked.
5. To serve, spoon some of the egg pudding over the rice, and add a lock of pork hair to garnish.

For this dessert use sour kiwi, it will contrast with the sweetness of the condensed milk. Each spoonful will have the sour kiwi and sweet milk.

Ingredients
2-4 Kiwi Fruit
100 ml Orange Juice
30 gms Crunshed Ice
Condensed Milk

Preparation
1. Peel the kiwi, place in a blender with the orange juice and crushed ice.
2. Blend until smooth.
3. Spoon it into a bowl, and pour over the sweet condensed milk.

These pebble shaped Kong Krangs made from starch always remind me of pieces of frosted glass you find on the beach. As is typical of Thailand we serve these with sugar syrup to sweeten them so that each person can add as little or as much sweetness as necessary.

Ingredients
100 gms Cassava Starch Flour
150 ml Boiling Hot Water
Crushed Ice
Pink Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Mix the food color with the boiling hot water and pour into the cassava starch. Mix it in quickly, and it will form a dough.
2. To make the Krong Krang, pinch off small bite sized pieces of the dough, flatten them into pebble shapes and I like to press the pebble against a grater to add a nice pattern to it.
3. Boil a pan full of water, drop the pebbles into the pan, cook them for 1-2 minutes, then scoop them out and drop into a bowl of cold water.
4. Serve with a little light sugar syrup and crushed ice.

Ingredients for Syrup
300 gms Sugar
350 gms ml Water

Preparation
Boil the water add sugar in until the sugar is dissolved. Keep boiling to reduce the water to half, then leave to cool.

Beautiful aren't they! The outer layer is made from green tapioca beads and the inside is yellow soya & coconut. They are named after the precious peridot green crystal because they shine just like peridot. I waited for the sun to shine before photographing them.

Ingredients
100 gms Green Tapioca
100 ml Hot Water
50 gms Yellow Soya Beans ( Split Mung Bean )
100 ml Coconut Milk

To Cook:
300 gms Sugar
300 ml Water

Preparation
1. Soak the yellow soya in warm water for 1 hour.
2. Steam the soya on foil in a Thai steamer for 10 minutes.
3. Add a little coconut milk and a pinch of salt, then blend them into a paste. Only a little coconut milk is needed for flavour, don't add too much or you'll make the soya paste too loose.
4. Roll pieces of the yellow bean paste into small balls, approximately 1cm in diameter.
5. Put the 100ml of hot water into the green tapioca, it will become sticky. Stir it to make sure the water is well mixed in, then take pieces of the tapioca and press them into thin 4cm discs in the palm of your hand. Place one of the yellow balls in the centre and fold up the edges. After some pressing you can form it into a ball.

In this photograph you can see what they look like before they are cooked.

6. Boil 300ml of water, add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
7. Drop the balls into the boiling water and cook until the balls become almost completely clear. This can take 15-20 minutes.
7. Once they are clear, remove them with a sieve and drop into cold water. Leave the sugar syrup in the pan to cool.
8. Serve with a little of the syrup, and a little coconut milk.

This is not a Thai recipe, it's a western recipe that we cook in my house. I like it so much I wanted to share it with you. You've no doubt had rice crispy squares, this is a toffee & marshmallow version made with either puffed rice or flaked corn.

Ingredients
200 gms Butter Toffees
200 gms Marshmallows
50 gms Butter
150 gms Corn Flakes or Rice Crispies Cereal

Preparation
1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan (large enough to fit all the ingredients).
2. Add the toffees and melt them slowly in the butter (stirring continuously until melted).
3. Add the marshmallow and continue heating and stirring until they have melted.
4. Add the cereal, stirring and folding until the mixture completely covers all the ingredients. I like to do this over a gentle heat to keep the mixture free.
5. Grease a tray with a little butter and empty the mixture into the tray and leave to cool.
6. Cut into squares.

This recipe may sound a little strange. It is a dessert made from shrimp on a base of (non-spicy) curried rice. A common Thai dish, but the ingredients are not common to desserts!

Ingredients for Yellow Rice
100 gms Sticky Rice
1-2 Teaspoons Tumeric
200 ml Coconut Milk
150 gms Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt

Ingredients for Sweet Shrimp
100 gms Shrimps
2-3 Garlic Cloves
1 Teaspoon White Pepper
10 gms Coriander Root or Seeds
100 gms Desiccated (Ground) Coconut
150 gms Sugar
1 Teaspoons Salt
2 Tablespoons Oil
2-3 Drops of Orange Food Colouring
10 gms Sliced Kaffir Leaves for Garnish

Preparation
1. To make the yellow rice, soak the sticky rice in warm water, and tumeric and leave for 4-8 hours.
2. Steam the rice until cooked, (approximately 15 minutes).
3. Place the rice in a bowl, mix with the sugar, salt and coconut milk. Leave it to soak up the coconut milk.
4. Now to the shrimp topping. Clean the shrimp, remove the shell and cut down the back to remove the black thread 'gut'.
5. Chop the shrimp into a fine mince.
6. Pound the garlic and coriander root/seeds and white pepper together until well ground up.
7. Fry the shrimp and pounded mixture in a frying pan with a little oil until part cooked, 30 seconds or so is fine.
8. Mix the ground coconut with the orange food colouring, add to the frying pan, add the sugar and salt and fry for a further 2 minutes. The sugar will slightly caramelize.
9. Serve a small bowl of the yellow rice with the sweet shrimp on top and garnish with some slices of kaffie lime leaves.

Another way to get children to eat their corn! These starch rocks contain chunks of 'gold' corn and are served in a coconut sauce with syrup to sweeten them. Corn has a natural sweetness that makes it good for desserts like this, and adding a little bit of fun by calling them gold rocks helps.

Ingredients
100 gms Cassava Starch Flour
100 gms Boiling Hot Water
100 gms Sweetcorn
Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Mix the colour with the hot water and pour into the cassava starch. Stir to make a dough.
2. Add the corn, and stir it in, take pieces of the dough and press the corn into the sides of the dough to form a rock shape (see the photograph). A small handful of the mixture in each rock.
3. Bring a pan of water to the boil, drop the rock into the biling water to cook for 5 minutes, these rocks are large and need to have a long time to cook.
4. Scoop out of the boiling pan with a sieve and drop them into cold water.
5. Serve with syrup and coconut sauce.

Ingredients for Syrup & Coconut
200 gms Sugar
300 ml Water
200 ml Coconut Milk
Pinch of Salt

Preparation
1. Boil the water, add the sugar until the sugar dissolves then leave to cool.
2. Separately mix the coconut milk and salt together and warm through to the salt has dissolved and coconut milk is smooth.
3. Serve these sauces separately, a person adds a little sugar and a little salt to their dessert as they like.

This is a traditional dessert of Thailand, but rice cakes are time consuming to make, and so I've made the recipe using store bought rice cakes.

Ingredients
1 Packet Rice Cakes
300 ml Water
400 gms Brown Sugar

Preparation
1. Boil the water in a saucepan.
2. Add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve, continue boiling, as the water boils off, the pan will get hotter than 100 degrees and the sugar will start to change.
3. There are two choices here, I like to eat this with a fudge coating, but it's common in Thailand to get this with a toffee swirl instead.
4. To check the progress of the sugar, take a bowl of cold water and drop spoonfuls of the boiling sugar in to see what stage it is at. If you have a sugar thermometer, then for toffee you need 150-160 degrees Celsius and for a fudge you need 115-120 degrees.
5. Once you have the sugar at the correct stage, take a sppon and make swirls on the rice cakes. The leave to cool.

I've mentioned before that we like stuffed balls in Thailand! This is yet another variation of that, in this one, almond paste is used to form the sweet filling of a rice ball.

Ingredients
300 gms Ground Almonds
2 Tablespoons Warm Water
2 Tablespoons Sugar
Food Coloring
200 gms Sticky Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Rice Flour
1 Teaspoon Cassava Starch Flour

Preparation
1. Mix the almond with the warm water and sugar. Knead until they are well mixed together. You can also use ready made marzipan. Split the mixture up into equal pieces and add the food colouring to each piece. Knead the colouring into the ball of almond paste.
2. Pinch off pieces of the paste, you should be able to make 20-30 small balls of almond paste from this mixture.
3. Mix the 3 flours (Sticky rice, Rice and Cassava) together, add a little warm water and stir to form a thick paste. You can knead the paste to make sure the water is well mixed into the flour.
4. Pinch off pieces of this paste to make enough outer coverings for each of your almond centres.
5. Take a rice ball, flatten it in your hand into a disc. Put an almond ball in the centre, fold up the edges of the disc and crimp the top together.
6. Roll the ball in the palm of your hands to smooth out the join.
7. Boil a pan of water, drop the balls into the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
8. These are served with either ginger tea (slice ginger and boil it in water for 3-5 minutes to make ginger tea), or regular tea.

Soft, slightly sweet with a slight nutty flavour from the sesame seeds. That's how I would describe this dessert. The dark yellow pieces in the picture are pieces of jack fruit.

Ingredients
30 gms Jack Fruit
120 gms Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
2 Tablespoons ( Pang Turw Yai Murm )or Corn Flour
150 gms Sugar
250 ml Coconut Milk
250 ml Evaporated Milk
250 ml Limestone Water (optional)
Sesame Seeds
1-2 Drops Jasmin Flavour (optional)

Perparation
1. Mix the cassava starch, corn flour and rice flour together, then add the sugar.
2. Mix in the coconut milk, evaporated milk, limestone water, and jasmin flavour.
3. Heat in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring continuously until the mixture becomes thick and sticky, then lower the heat and continue cooking for 1 minute to cook it through, then take off the heat.
4. Chop the jack fruit into small pieces, mix into the flour mixture.
5. Empty the mixture into a try, (a small lasagne tray works well), sprinkly the sesame seeds over the top, then leave to cool.
6. When its cold and set, remove from the tray and cut into squares.

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.

Bi tua is a sweet reed with a bubblegum like flavour and green colour used in Thai dishes to add a unique flavour to the dessert. You can see it in the background of the photograph.

Ingredients
120 gms Mung Bean Flour ( Pang Tur )
120 gms Cassava Starch
120 gms Tapioca Flour
4-5 Bi Tua Leaves
1000 ml Water
200 ml Coconut Milk
600 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Mix the two flours and starch together.
2. Place the bi-tua leaves and water in a blender and liquidize. Then filter the water (to remove the leaf pulp).
3. Boil the water with sugar until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Leave to cool.
5. Take 400ml of the bi tua syrup, add the coconut milk
6. Split the flour in two equal portions. Mix one portion with the bi-tua and coconut milk, and one portion with the remaining bi-tua water. One part will become clear, one layer will be cloudy, we use these to make layers in the dessert.
7. Put a foil tray in a steamer, and get it hot.
8. Ladle in a shallow layer of the clear mixture and steam it for 3-5 minutes to just cook it.
9. Next ladle in the cloudy layer (the mixture with coconut milk) and steam that for 3-5 minutes to cook it.
10. Keep doing this until the metal tray is filled up and the dessert is cooked.
11. Leave to cool in the fridge, cut into diamonds and lay out of the plate.

The original name 'coconut covered tapioca dessert' was so boring, I thought I'd invent a new name for this dessert. Not turk-ish delight, Thai-kish delight, since it looks similar to the starch based famous Turkish dessert. You can't really see it in the photograph, but there are beads of glistening tapioca inside.

Ingredients
220 gms Green Tapioca
500 ml Water
300 Sugar
200 gms Ground Coconut

Preparation
1. Into a saucepan, place the water. Bring to the boil.
2. Rinse the tapioca, and place in the boiling water.
3. Cook until the water has almost completely gone, add the sugar and continue cooking until the sugar has dissolved, then remove from the heat.
4. Pour onto a tray and leave to cool.
5. Cut the tray into rectangles, cover completely in ground coconut and serve.

The taro gives a soft bread like texture, the coconut cream a smooth creaminess and the berris give a contrast tartness. I used red berries for this, but sour strawberries or raspberries would also work well.

Ingredients
500 gms Taro Root
140 gms Tapioca or Cassava Starch Flour
60 ml Hot Water
250 ml Coconut Milk
175 gms Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
Young Coconut Meat (Available in cans)
Bitua Leaves
Sour Berries for Garnish (Optional)

Preparation
1. Peel the taro root, cut into half, steam until it is cooked through and leave it to cool. Mash it.
2. Take half the flour, add to the mashed taro, add the hot water and mix. Add the remaining flour and mix well to form a smooth paste.
3. Cover the bowl the paste is in with a damp towel to stop a skin forming.
4. Into a blender, blend the Bitua leaves with 2 tablespoons of water to form bitua juice, sieve the leaves out leaving just the juice and add that to the taro dough. If the dough is too wet, add more flour.
5. Roll out the taro and cut into square (if you prefer you can pinch off pieces and roll them to form balls).
6. Into a saucepan, place coconut milk and bring to the boil, add sugar and salt and stir to dissolve then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Adjust the seasoning of this sauce to your tastes, it should be a little salty and slightly sweeter than you like.
7. Cook the tarot squares in boiling water for 3 minutes, remove and cool in cold water.
8. Serve the taro, berries and warm sauce immediately.

In the photograph you can see I've served this with papaya ice cream, I'll do the recipe for this icecream tomorrow. The balls are also served with a syrup, so it's not strictly necessary to serve with ice cream.

Ingredients
120 gms Pumpkin
6 Tablespoons Sticky Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
50 ml Bi tua Juice
100 ml Sugar Syrup
50 ml Coconut Milk

Preparation
1. Clean and peel the pumpkin, steam for 20 minutes and leave to cool.
2. Mash the pumkin, add the sticky rice flour, cassava and mix together until thick. If the mixture if not a thick dough, add a little more rice flour.
3. Pinch off pieces and make small balls, approximately 1cm in diameter.
4. Boil a pan of water and cook the balls in the water for 3 minutes, remove and drop into cool water for 5 minutes.
5. To make the syrup, into a saucepan, take the bi-tua leaf juice, coconut milk and sugar syrup and heat to bring to the boil for 2 minutes.
6. Spoon over the pumpkin balls.

This rice pudding-cake is made from black sticky rice, it is a variation of the traditional black rice pudding, and gives me an excuse to layer young coconut in, one of my favorite dessert ingredients.

Ingredients
100 gms Black Sticky Rice
70 gms Sugar
220 ml Coconut Milk
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Young Coconut Meat

Preparation
1. Soak the black sticky rice in water overnight.
2. Steam for 25 minutes, I place foil in a Chinese steamer, pierce some holes in it, then place the rice on top.
3. In a saucepan, place the coconut milk, sugar, and salt and steamed rice.
4. Heat and stir over a low heat until the liquid has dried off and the rice is very thick.
5. Place in a box in the fridge to set, I use a small non stick loaf tin.
6. The rice will form a solid loaf, you can then slice it, and layer it with young coconut.

The ginger in this ice cream recipe creates a nice bite that contrasts well with the sweetness of the lychees. I sometime double up the ginger if the ice cream is going to be used to mild fruit, for example if you serve it with baked pears, then you can double up the ginger to add a bigger bite.

Ingredients
5 gms Ginger Root
250 gms Lychees in Syrup (Half a Tin)
200 ml Double Cream (35% fat)
2 Eggs Yolks
75 gms Sugar
100 ml Milk or Evaporated Milk

Preparation
1. In a food processor, blend the ginger root and lychees & syrup together.
2. Then whisk the cream and milk together with an electric whisk.
3. Mix the egg yolks and sugar together, add the cream and the lychee mix, and take to a bain marie (a pan inside a second pan of boiling water).
4. Keep heating and stirring to bring the liquid to just short of boil and keep it there for 3-4 minutes. This is to cook through the egg.
5. Leave to cool, then place in the freezer.
6. Remove 2-3 times and whisk it again to break up the ice crystals when they form.
7. When serving remove it one last time and blend it.

Everyone of these miniature fruits are made from sweetened yellow bean paste, and food colourings. The shine comes from a glaze made of agar. Don't be put off, they are not as difficult to make as they look, and you can have a lot of fun with your children making them.
Make each one small, 10-15gms of yellow bean paste is perfect, if you make them too big, they are difficult to dip in the agar later and will not hold their shape. A good way to hold the fruit is to skewer them on toothpicks as you paint and dip them.

Ingredients
200 gms Yellow Bean
150 gms Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
100 ml Coconut Milk
Food Coloring

Ingredients for Glaze
5 gms Agar Jelatin
150 Water
50 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Soak the yellow beans obernight, steam for 45 minutes.
2. Pound or blend the bean to a paste, add mix with the sugar, salt and coconut milk.
3. Place into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring continuously until the paste thickens, then leave it to cool.
4. Now comes the artistic stage, take small pieces of the yellow bean paste, about 10gms each and form them into fruit shapes.
5. I find it's a good idea to use toothpicks and a block of foam to hold the shapes while I paint them with the food colouring.
6. Now to glaze, mix the agar with water and heat until the agar has fully dissolved.
7. Leave it to cool slightly, but be careful not to let it set.
8. Dip the fruit into the agar and stand them up by pushing the toothpick into foam or polystyrene. Let the agar set on the fruit, then repeat the process and coat the fruit again with another layer of agar. You may have to reheat the agar in the pan to melt it again each time.

Hints for Each Fruit
Banana - Bananas are slightly oblong, with 4 stripes running down the sides.
Chom Pu - These are a Thai fruit, a little pink yellow and orange on the base and make the top slightly green.
Cherries - The stalk I made from a stalk of coriander.

Chillies - I rolled out the basic shape and used a blunt knife to make the leaf shape at the top. Then skewer them with a toothpick and paint with food coloring.
Man Cud - the leaves on the top are made by pressing in the top of a pen to give the round leaf shape.
Melon Slices - I found it is easier to not paint the bottom edge of the melon.

Mini Orange - One of my favourites, make the leaf separately and be careful when dipping this one in agar because the leaf can come off.
Mini Sweet Corn - Make a tapering sausage shape, cut a grating into the soya with a sharp knife, then paint with yellow food colouring and green edging.
Mini Tomato - A blunt knife is used to make the star shaped leaves, by pushing down the soft yellow bean paste.

Mini Pears - I made these pears too big, and as you can see one of them bent when I was coating them in agar.

As is typical of Asian candy, these candies are only a little bit sweet, the outside has the texture similar to marzipan. This idea came from Kruaklaibaan, a Thai food forum discussion board, it's well worth visiting if you speak Thai.

Ingredients Filling
70 gms Black and Red Soya Beans
50 gms Sugar
100 ml Oil

Ingredients For Outside
100 gms Wheat Flour ( Bleached Wheat Flour if Available )
100 ml Coconut Milk
30 gms Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
2-4 Drops Jasmin Flavour
2-3 Drops Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Soak the beans overnight, then clean it and boil for 20 minutes.
2. Blend in a food processor to form a smooth paste.
3. Take the bean paste and warm in a saucepan, add the oil and sugar and keep stirring until the bean paste is thick and nearly dry. Take off the heat and leave to cool.
4. When it's cool, take small pieces (approx 25g) of the paste and roll them in your hands to form balls. These will form the centre.
5. For the outside, mix the flour, coconut milk, sugar, salt, jasmin and food colouring together.
6. Heat this mixture over a low heat and keep stirring until the flour has cooked through and the mixture thickened and become sticky.
7. Separate it into pieces and again form balls with them, you will need one cover ball for each centre.
8. To form the finished candy, flatten the outer cover into a disc, place a filling ball inside, then fold up the outside around and press the edges together.
9. If you find the mixture is a little too sticky, you can dust your hands with cassava starch.
10. Roll the sweets so they are elongated, and cut them in half.

Part sweet, part salt, part smooth, part rough. This dessert consists of many interesting contrasts!

Ingredients for Colored Balls
100 gms Shredded Medium-Old Coconut
100 gms Palm Sugar
300 gms Sticky Rice Flour
Warm Water
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch Flour
Food Coloring

Preparation
1. Melt the palm sugar in a pan. Add the shredded coconut, and stir while heating until you have a well mixed sticky mixture.
2. Leave to cool, then take spoonfuls of this mixture and roll into 2cm diameter balls, these form the centres.
3. Mix the sticky rice flour, cassava starch, a drop or two of food colouring and enough of the warm water to form a smooth dough.
4. Mix the dough well, divide it into portions, so you have one portion for each of your sweet coconut centres.
5. Roll each portion into a ball then roll it flat to approx 6cm diameter disc. Wrap it round one of the coconut sweets to form a ball. Do this for all the sweets.
6. Boil a pan of water, drop the coloured balls in the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes. Remove and drop into cold water.

Ingredients for White Base
460 gms Coconut Milk
50 gms Rice Flour
Pinch Of Salt

Preparation
1. Mix the flour and salt and the coconut milk.
2. Heat over a medium heat, stirring until the mixture has thickened and the flour cooked through. This takes 2-3 minutes stirring after it thickens. The spoon into cups and add the balls.

This is a delicious, slightly salt, slightly sweet, very filling dessert from Thailand. The salt balances the sweetness of the sauce and ripe mango. The sticky (glutinous) rice is like a solid rice pudding base to the dish.

Ingredient For 4 people
100 gms Glutinous (Sticky) Rice
2 Mangos
200 ml Water
100 ml Coconut Milk
100 gms Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Rice Flour

Preparation
1. Soak the glutinous rice in some water (enough water to cover it) for 3-4 hours. This will make the sticky rice easier to cook.
2. Steam the rice for 15 minutes to cook it through.
3. Into a sauce-pan, put the water and sugar, and bring to the boil. The sugar should dissolve completely.
4. Add the cooked sticky rice into the sugar pan and stir well to mix it.
5. In a different sauce pan, put the coconut milk, the rice flour, and salt and cook it on a low heat for 5 minutes or until the coconut milk thickens from the flour.
6. Peel the mango and slice the flesh into thin slices.
7. To serve, put a bed of the sticky rice on a plate, followed by a layer of mango slices, and pour some of the coconut sauce over the top.

This dessert is a mung bean salty sweet dessert so typical of Thailand.

Ingredients For Base
60 gms Mung Bean Flour
800 ml Rose or Jasmin Water
150 gms Sugar
2-3 Food Coloring
Moulds for Setting

Preparation
1. Mix the flour, rose water, and sugar and stir until dissolved.
2. Warm over a medium heat, stir until it goes clear.
3. Fill the moulds to 2/3rds full.

Ingredients For the Coconut Topping
200 ml Coconut Milk
1 1/2 Tablespoon Rice Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients, warm over a medium heat, stirring until the coconut thickens and rice flour is cooked through.
2. Turn off the heat.
3. Pour a thin layer over the mung bean mixture.
4. Sprinkle a few toasted sesame seeds to garnish.

These sweet rice pancakes with spring onions, are a tradition in Thailand. Normally made on a big iron plate, you can make them at home if you have a mini pancake pan like the one shown below and a lid to cover it. They are made from 2 halfs stuck together with a binding topping. The lower layer contains spring onions and salt, and the topping layer is sweeter. In future recipes we'll reuse the pan to make other desserts, so if you want to buy one you can reuse it for many things.

Ingredients For Base
120 gms Rice Flour
230 ml Water
230 ml Water (Again)
80 gms Cooked Fragrant Rice
60 gms Shredded Fresh Coconut
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Chopped Spring Onion

Preparation for Base
1. Mix the rice flour and 230ml water and leave overnight to sour a little.
2. The next day, mix the cooked rice, salt, shredded coconut, and the other 230ml water and blend to smooth out the rice, and add mixture this to the other rice mixture.

Ingredients for Topping
230 ml Coconut Milk
225 gms Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation for Topping
1. Mix all ingredients together and stir until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved.

Cooking
1. Put the pan on the heat.
2. Chop the spring onions finely.
3. Spread a little oil on the surface by rubbing it down with oiled kitchen paper.
4. Spoon the base mixture into each indent in the pan up to the top, sprinkle a few onions on it.
5. Cover and leave to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Spoon just a little of the topping mixture over each pancake, let it set a little, but not too much.
7. Take a spoon, turn each pancake over onto it's neighbor, you can see this in the photograph bottom right. Cover and just let the last of topping mixture set for a few seconds.

Another use for mee krob (crunchy rice vermicelli) is this snack. This snack is crunchy rice and dates made into a semi-sweet dessert. I like to mould it into a tom yum pan and serve it sliced with dates in the center, as in the photograph.

Ingredients
30 gms Rice Noodles (Thin)
Oil For Deep Frying
2 Tablespoons Sugar
3 Tablespoons Chopped Dates
1 Tablespoons Sliced Small Onion
1 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
1 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Preheat the oil, drop in small amounts of the rice noodles, remove and drain. They cook in only a few seconds.
2. Put all the ingredients into a large pan, heat gently and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the onions cooked.
3. Add the crispy rice noodles, and mix well.
4. Spoon into a mould, and press it down with the back of the spoon to compress it. Leave in the fridge to cool.

This ring is made from young shredded coconut, bi-tua (pandan leaves) flavouring, nuts, and puffed rice. It's Thailand's version of crunch bars and eaten at the new year in April. I've pressed it into a tom yum pan to get that donut shape.

Ingredients
125 gms Rice Crispies ( Puffed Toasted Rice )
80 gms Peanuts
40 gms Ground Young Coconut
150 gms Sugar
2 tbsp. White Sesame Seeds
10 gms Bitua Leaves (Pandan Leaves)
200 ml Water

Preparation
1. In a dry hot frying pan, toast the sesame seeds until they are golden.
2. Toast the peanuts in the same way, until browned and leave to cool.
3. Blend the bi tua leaves with the water then sieve to get just the green water.
4. Into a saucepan, place the bi tua water and bring to the boil, add the sugar and ground coconut and stir until the water reduces and becomes sticky.
5. Add the remaining ingredients, and mix to make sure the sticky water covers all the ingredients.
6. Empty into a tom-tum pan, press flat, and leave to cool and set.

This is sugar cane, in Thailand we cut it into short pieces, and chew on it as a sweet treat. Once the sweetness has been chewed out, we spit out the chewed up fibre. You can buy this in tins in Asian supermarkets.

I originally thought these were plantains in English, but the variety of banana used isn't a plantain, so I'm going to call it a Thai Banana. It is small, and when used in this recipe it is unripe, and fibrous, making it suitable for bashing and grilling. A photograph of the banana type is shown below, but for this recipe they should be unripe.

Ingredients
1 Unripe Banana Per Person
Sticks for grilling
100 gms Dark Brown Sugar (for Sugar Syrup)
100 mls Water

Preparation
1. Slice the unripe Thai bananas into 3cm thick slices.
2. Thread them onto the sticks side ways on (you can see in the photograph).
3. Once they're threaded on, bash them with a mallet (I use a Thai mortar). This flattens them and helps break down the fibers making them easier to eat.
4. Grill them until browned and cooked through. You can also dry fry or barbecue them.
5. Once they're brown and cooked through, serve the a sugar syrup or honey.
6. For the sugar syrup heat the dark brown sugar and water in a saucepan until dissolved. Boil off the water to make the sugar syrup thicker, then pour over the banana.