This is a dessert made with taro - a sweet potato like root vegetable and topped with fried onion slivers. It sounds stranger than it tastes, the taste is similar to bread puddings, the taro gives this dessert the bread like texture, the onions add a contrast flavour. If you can't obtain taro, use sweet potato or yam.

Ingredients
150 gms Taro
6 Eggs
200 gms Sugar
200 ml Coconut Milk
1 Onion
3 Tablespoons Oil

Preparation
1. Boil the taro until it is cooked, blend it in a food processor until it is a fine purée.
2. Mix the eggs with the sugar in a food processor and whip for a few minutes to get plenty of air into the eggs.
3. Add the taro and coconut milk and stir until mixed.
4. Preheat the oven to 175 degree celsius.
5. Empty the mixture into baking dishes to the half way mark.
6. Bake until set and brown, approximately 40 minutes.
7. Slice the onion and fry in the oil until brown. Add a few slivers of fried onion to the top of the cake.
8. Serve cold.

Yum, steamed banana pudding with coconut. As with many dishes in Thailand, this is less sweet than western desserts, making it quite a healthy dessert to eat, well in small quantities anyway! You will need a small bowl or aluminium tray to pour this into and that bowl or tray needs to fit inside your steamer. This dessert does not keep well, it should be prepared and eaten on the same day.

Ingredients
5 Bananas
40 gms Rice Flour
1 Tablespoon Cassava Starch
75 gms Sugar
230 ml Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Dessicated (Dried Shredded) Coconut
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
Aluminium Foil Trays

Preparation
1. Chop the bananas into a food processor, add rice flour, sugar cassava starch and coconut milk.
2. Blend the ingredients until smooth, you can also mash the bananas by hand, but it takes a little work.
3. Spoon into an aluminium foil tray sprinkle with desicated coconut and a pinch of salt.
4. Steam for 20 minutes in a Chinese steamer.
5. And leave it to cool in the fridge.
6. Just before serving, decorate it with slices of banana and more dessicatd coconut. If you dip the banana slices in orange juice they will keep their colour longer, but it's still best to serve it straight away.

Fake mushrooms, made from meringue. Thai's love to make food that looks like something else, and naturally we couldn't simply make meringues that look like meringues! The 'earth' dusting is done with coco powder.

Ingredients
200 gms White Eggs
3 Tablespoons Cassava Starch
200 gms Sugar
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 Tablespoons Coco Powder
Greaseproof Paper

Preparation
1. Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks. Add lemon juice, and whisk again until the eggs are stiff.
2. Split into two parts, one part will become the cap, one part the stalk.
3. Fill a piping bag and onto a piece of greaseproof paper, squeeze out the mushroom cap. Dust these with coco powder.
4. Mix the other half of the egg yolk with the cassava starch. Be careful not to stir it too much.
5. Pipe this into stalks, and keep a little back.
6. Place the meringues into the oven, at 70 degrees celsius. Be very careful not to overheat meringue, it needs only gentle heat, more like drying than cooking.
7. Cut the stalks into 2cm lengths and glue them onto the mushroom caps using the remaining meringue. Cook a little longer to just set the mushrooms.

In Thailand, lots of our desserts are flower scented. We use fresh flowers left in water overnight, but it's also common to use artificial flower scents made from chemicals, it's just that Linalool doesn't sound as tasty as Jasmine!

Ingredients
120 gms Cake Flour
100 gms Sugar
4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
1-2 Drops of Jasmin Flavour

Preparation
1. Mix the flour and sugar, together, add the oil and rub between your finger tips until the oil is well mixed into the flour to form a crumbly mixture.
2. Add a drop or two of the jasmin flavour and just enough water to bind the mixture into a loose pastry.
3. Set out your baking tray and cover with tin foil.
4. Pinch off balls of the pastry and make the flowers.

5. You can see how the flower is made, the balls are cut into quarters, a smaller ball is placed in the centre to hold them together.
6. Bake at 200 degrees celsius until lightly browned (approx 10-15 minutes).

This sponge mixture is flavours with bi-tua leaves to give a green colour and bubble gum like flavour, so typical of bi-tua dishes. It's better to use bi-tua flavouring for this because it's concentated, but if you cannot get it, shred bi-tua in water and squeeze the leaves carefully to get as concentrated a flavour as possible into the water, then filter out the pulp so that only the green water is used.
To make a more interesting photograph, I've cut the sponge into cubes, but that is optional.

Ingredients
170 gms Unsalted Butter
170 gms Castor Sugar
4 Large Eggs
160 gms Cake Flour (With raising agent)
4-5 Drops Bi Tua Flavour

Preparation
1. Leave the butter to soften at room temperature.
2. Blend the butter with the sugar to form a smooth creamy mixture.
3. Add 2 of the eggs and whisk in until smooth, it's better to use an electric whisk to get as much air into the mixture as possible.
4. Add the remaining eggs and whisk again.
5. Add the flour a little at a time, whisking in until smooth.
6. Finally finish by adding the bi-tua flavour. If the mixture is too loose, add a little more flour, you want a soft creamy paste at the end.
7. Line a cake dish with greaseproof paper, pour in the mixture. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 45-50 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

This dessert is soft like a pudding, and is made from desiccated coconut and a little sugar, for a slightly sweet taste. A very classic Thai dessert.

Ingredients
50 gms Sticky Rice Flour
50 gms Shredded (Desiccated) Coconut
60 gms Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
270 ml Water

Preparation
1. Mix all ingredients together and mix well.
2. Place in a pan over the heat and warm until it's dried out.
3. Preheat an oven to 200 degrees celsius.
4. Lightly oil an oven dish, then spoon the flour mixture in.
5. Bake until brown, approximately 15-20 minutes.

This baked sweet snack/biscuit contained sweetened black soya and originates from Japan. Today I am making the sweet version of it, tomorrow I will make the savoury version. If you can't find black soya beans, you can use red kidney beans, just be careful to boil them hard for 10 minutes, or use tinned beans.

Ingredients
120 gms Wheat Flour ( White Cake Flour )
175 ml Condensed Milk
2 Tablespoon Fresh Butter
1/4 Teaaspoon Baking Soda
Drop of Vanilla Essence
100 gms Black Soy Beans (Soak overnight to soften them)
125 Coconut Milk
125 gms Sugar
50 gms Ground Coconut
1 Tablespoon Butter

Preparation
1. Mix the flour, backing soda, butter and a little water to form a dough. Knead until you have a smooth firm dough. Add the condensed milk and vanilla essence and continue kneading until mixed. If the dough becomes too loose, you can add a little more flour to stiffen it up.
2. Place in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave for 5-10 minutes to rest.
3. For the filling, take the black beans, wrap them in foil and steam for 15-20 minutes.
4. Place the beans in a blender and blend till smooth, add the sugar, coconut milk and ground coconut and blend a little more to mix them in.
5. Place into a saucepan, and cook over a low heat, stirring all the time until the paste thickens and dries out.
6. Leave to cool, take spoonfuls of the cold mixture and roll into balls.
7. Roll out the dough, take circles of the dough large enough to wrap around the balls of filling, and crimp the pastry to seal it.
8. Place on a greased baking sheet, and bake at 180 degrees celsius for 10 minutes.

A great filler, I often bake a large banana loaf and cut off thick slices to go into packed lunches. The banana cake will keep for a week in the fridge quite easily, and it has plenty of bulk, making it very filling. It's also a good way to use up old brown bananas that are overripe.

Ingredients
400 gms Mashed Ripe Banana
150 gms Sugar
5 Eggs
300 gms Wheat Cake Flour
7 gms Baking Powder
7 gms Bicarbonate of Soda
3 gms Salt
100 gms Vegetable Oil
3-5 Drops Vanilla Essence

Preparation
1. Mix the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder (baking powder is usually bicarbonate and citric acid used as a raising agent).
2. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and vanilla essence, add in the mashed banana and which until well mixed.
3. Add the flour a little at a time whisking to blend it in.
4. Add the salt and oil and whisk that in.
5. Pour into a greaseproof loaf tray and bake for 45-60 minutes at 180 degrees celsius until cooked.
6. You can tell if it's cooked by pushing a toothpick into the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean it's cooked, if it comes out with batter mix on it, it needs longer.

This cake is made from shredded cassava, a sort of Asian version of carrot cake.

Ingredients
200 gms Grated Cassava
150 gms Sugar
50 gms Grated Coconut or Dessicated Coconut
Pinch of Salt
100 ml Water with Jasmin Flavour

Preparation
1. Mix everything together in a saucepan, heat over a medium heat, and keep stirring.
2. Bring to the boil and cook through for 5 minutes. You want quite a firm mixture at the end of this, so cook off excess liquid at this stage.
3. Lightly oil a baking dish, pour the mixture in and cook at 180 degrees celsius until the top is browned.
4. Leave to cool, cut into cubes and serve. I like to eat this in the morning with tea.

These are swirls of coconut milk flavored, thickened, baked, starch. When I describe them like that it takes all the fun out of of them, so just between you and we, let's call them Emerald Swirls.

Ingredients
100 gms Bleached Wheat Flour
220 ml Coconut Milk
150 gms Caster Sugar
3-4 Drops of Jasmin Flavour
2-3 Drops Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Mix all the ingredients together in a saucepan.
2. Heat over a medium heat, stirring continuously.
3. Continue heating until the flour is cooked, it will become semi transparent when it's cooked through, this takes several minutes.
4. Leave to cool a little so that it can be piped. Cover a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
5. Spoon it into a piping bag and pipe out the swirls onto the greaseproof paper.
6. Place it in the oven on a low (170 degree celsius) heat for 30 minutes or until they are firm on the outside, but still a little soft on the inside.

This is a guest recipe from a western friend Myriam. They are almond and marzipan cakes. It's important to get sufficient marzipan in your diet at Christmas time. Marzipan is important for a healthy diet, just like fruit and vegetables and this recipe ensures you get your recommended annual dose of this life saving ingredient.

Ingredients
200 gms Marzipan
90 gms Sugar
125 gms Butter
1 Egg
50 ml Water
200 gms Flour
5 gms Baking Powder (enough for 200gms Flour)
3-5 Drops Vanilla Essence
Sliced Almonds to Decorate

Preparation
1. Mix the butter, sugar and marzipan together in a large bowl with your fingers.
2. Add the flour, essence, baking powder, egg and enough water to loosen the mixture. I found that 50ml of water was enough.
3. Whisk until the mixture is light and soft.
4. Spoon the mixture into paper cups and garnish with some almond flakes.
5. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

This is a baked custard thickened and textured with yellow mung bean pulp. In the photograph I've topped it with fromage frais and grated orange rind, but that's because it came out a little rough at the top! The cake shown is only about 8 cms across, it's better to bake it in small cake tins or even a tom-yum ring so that it cooks in the centre.

Ingredients
100 gms Sugar
170 ml Coconut Milk
125 gms Yellow Mung Beans ( Soak Over Night )
2 Egg
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Rice Flour

Preparation
1. Boil the mung beans in water for 10-15 minutes until soft, if you didn't soak them first it can take a long time to cook them. Take then to a blender and blend to a paste.
2. Add the coconut milk, rice flour, sugar, ciinamon, egg and blend till mixed.
3. Grease a small baking dish or tom yum ring and bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.
4. Remember the toothpick trick, push a toothpick into the cake at the end, withdraw it and if it is clean then the cake is cooked in the middle.

These biscuits have a plain base, the sweetness comes from the sweet flower shapes and a little crunch and sweetness comes from the sugared pumpkin seed, or you can also use sugared almonds or sesame seeds if you can't get the pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients Pai
240 gms Wheat Flour ( Cake flour )
1 Egg Tolk
100 gms Salty Butter
100 ml Water

Preparation
1. Mix flour and butter, and rub between your fingers to form a fine crumb.
2. Add egg and water slowly and massage until mixed to a soft dough.
3. Roll flat and very thin, and cut out 2cm diameter circles.
4. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees celsius and bake for 8 minutes.

Ingredients for Ton Aigg
6 Egg Yolks
240 gms Wheat flour
100 gms Sugar
220 ml Coconut Milk

Preparation
1. Heat a dry frying pan to make it hot.
2. Put the flour in and toast it by stirring it for a few minutes (don't let it brown, just toast it a little). Set aside.
3. Boil the coconut milk and add sugar boil until some of the liquid has boiled off and it's it's a slightly thick syrup. Leave to cool (it needs to be cooled enough before adding the egg yolks, warm is OK)..
4. Stir in the eggs yolks into the syrup one by one, stirring them in as you do.
5. Add the flour to this, stir it in and put on a medium heat.
6. Keep stirring, this will thicken to a firm paste. Keep stirring and cooking and stirring and cooking to cook through the paste. Leave to cool.
7. Form small balls of this paste in your hands, this forms the centre of your flour.
8. Make the leave pattern with a toothpick in each ball.

Ingredients for Nam Mong Gud
100 gms Pumpkin Seed (Almonds or Sesame seeds)
50 gms Sugar
50 ml Rose Water (Or water and vanilla essence)

Preparation
1. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan.
2. Mix the water and sugar and heat until the sugar goes crystalized (at the fudge stage).
3. Mix in the pumpkin seeds and leave to cool.

Assembly
Take a base, place the seeds as leaves around the base, then place a ball of the yellow paste in the middle.

We made tamarind jam the other day, which makes a terrific biscuit filling.

Ingredients or Cookies
130 gms Wheat Flour
1 Teaspoon Bicarbonate Soda
A Pinch of Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Egg
2-3 Tablespoons Water
1 Tablespoon Butter
2 Tablespoon Oil

Preparation
1. Mix theflour, bicarbonate, sugar and salt, leave it for 10 minutes.
2. Then add butter in to mix flour and break it up between your fingers to a fine crumb.
3. Add oil and egg in, mix until you get a smooth dough, add a little water if necessary.
4. Roll flat, cut small cookies (2cms across).
5. Bake in a preheated oven, 180 degrees celcius until cooked, which only takes about 10 minutes.