A steamed coconut layer rice cake eaten cold, cut into cubes. This keeps for a week or two in the frigde and can be made well ahead of time. If you can't find rose water, use vanilla.

Ingredients
100 gms Rice Flour
100 gms Cassava Starch ( Pang Taw Yai Mum )
400 gms Sugar
500 gms Rose Water
100 ml Coconut Milk
Pink Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Boil the water with the sugar and leave it to cool to make a syrup.
2. Mix the 2 flours together, add the coconut milk and syrup and mix together. It should form a runny liquid.
3. Separate the mixture into 2 parts, one part colour pink with the food colouring, the other leave white.
4. Put the steaming pan on to get it hot.
5. Into a aluminium tray pour a 1/2cm layer of the white mixture and steam it for 10-15 minutes until it is coooked.
6. Pour a layer of pink and steam that, and alternate white and pink until the tray is full.
7. Leave to cool and cut into 3cm sided cubes.

You've no doubt eaten cheesecake, well this is a Thai cheese jelly, a jelly made from curdled milk instead of water. For this I used orange gelatin with added vitamin C, you need the acidity of the vitamin C to make the milk curdle to make the cheese. If you can't find a suitable gelatin, add tablespoons of orange juice as you heat the milk until it separates.

Ingredients
1 Packet Orange Gelatin with Vitamin C
250 ml Pasturised Milk
2 Oranges For Garnish
Plastic Cup or Mould

Preparation
1. Put the milk into a saucepan, add the gelatin, and stir to dissolve the gelatin.
2. Put on a low heat, warm it gently until the milk curdles, do not permit it to boil.
3. Pour into the mould and allow to set.
4. Remove, slice, and serve with orange segments.

This dessert may look like tofu, but is a gelatin dessert made from soya milk. It's unsweetened, and is usually eaten with fruit in syrup as a plain contrast to the sweet fruit. Today I will be making several dishes with tofu & fake tofu.

Ingredients
1 Packet of Plain Gelatin (Sufficient for 500ml liquid)
400 ml Soya Milk
40 gms Chopped Apple
40 gms Chopped Orange
40 gms Tinned Cherries in Syrup
Jelly Mould

Preparation
1. Put the soya milk into a saucepan, together with the gelatin. Notice that we are using less liquid than is normally used for a jelly (jello) dessert, for this dish we need a firmer jelly.
2. Heat gently to dissolve the gelatin, don't let it boil, and keep stirring.
3. Pour into a mould and leave in the fridge to set overnight.
4. Turn it out onto a plate and slice. I like to cut out star shapes when I serve this dish.
5. Mix the fruit with together with the syrup from the cherries and pour over the tofu stars (This syrup, will give the dish its sweetness).

I had a nice comment from a Spanish visitor, so today I've made a recipe which I think originates from Spain. It is a pear purée jelly, which you can make from either agar or gelatin. In Thailand I eat this with sweetened coconut cream, but fruit yoghurt also works very well with this dessert.

Ingredients
3 Pears
10g Gelatin
50ml Orange Juice
2 Teaspoons Sugar

Preparation
1. Peel the pears, remove the fruit and place in a food processor or blender.
2. Add 50ml orange juice.
3. Blend to a smooth pulp.
4. You should have about 350ml of pear pulp mixture at this point, you may need to adjust the gelatine if you have too little or too much. For this dish you want a strong jelly.
5. Into a saucepan, heat the pear pulp, sugar and gelatine. Stir to dissolve the gelatine and sugar. Heat until it's nearly boiling, but do not allow it to boil.
6. Leave to cool, pour into a mould and leave to set in the fridge.

Serve With
Fruit Yoghurt
or Sweetened Coconut Cream

I wanted to show you some of the properties of agar, so I made this very simple dessert. In Thailand we use agar rather than gelatine. It's very much stiffer than gelatine and made from seaweed, rather than cow, so it's suitable for vegetarians. It sets very very quickly, the moulds you use for agar should withstand hot liquids, since it needs to be poured in hot.

Ingredients
4 Bananas Sliced
5 gms Agar Powder
500 ml Water
100 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Mix the agar powder with water and heat on the stove.
2. Heat until the powder has dissolved, don't let it boil.
3. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
4. Take off the heat. You can leave it a little to cool down, but as soon as you see it thickening, pour it into your jelly mould.
5. Place in the fridge, after 1 hour it should be set firm.

You can see from the photograph it's almost like glass to look at, the texture is firm but not gummy - it breaks and cuts very easily. Tomorrow I will make a more typical Thai recipe with agar.

Another way that we eat grass jelly (a gelatine like substance, sold in tins), is to serve it with sugar syrup and ice.

Ingredients for 2 People
50 gms Grass Jelly
50 gms Sugar
200 ml Water
50 gms Crushed Ice

Preparation
1. boil the water with the sugar until it is fully dissolved. Leave to cool.
2. Slice the grass jelly into cubes, spoon some of the crushed ice and syrup over the grass jelly and serve.
3. Add more syrup if you like it sweet.

A Thai jelly made from agar and Bi Tua leaves. The Bi Tua gives the jelly a bubble gum like taste and green colour while the agar gives it a very firm texture.

Ingredients
4-5 Bi Tua Leaves
500 ml Water
5 gms Agar Powder
100 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Clean and chop the Bi Tua leaves, put into a blender and blend until smooth. Sieve the mixture through a fine cloth sieve into a pan.
2. Add the agar powder, heat until the agar has fully dissolved, but don't let it boil. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
3. Pour straight into moulds and leave to cool. Agar sets very quickly and it's better to pout it into moulds when hot. You can even pour it into bowls since it is very easy to prise out of any mould.

A jelly made from slices of young coconut (the green coconut that has soft flesh). You can buy young coconut flesh in tins from Asian grocers. The coconut base for this dessert is a little salty, as is typical for Thai desserts.

Ingredients for Clear Layer
5 gms Agar Powder
600 ml Water
50 gms Young Coconut Meat
150 gms Sugar

Ingredients for the Topping
5 gms Agar Powder
500 ml Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Salt

Preparation Clear Part
1. Mix the agar with water, and heat on the stove until the agar has dissolved.
2. Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.
3. Slice the young coconut flesh into strips. Pour the agar in the mould half way (leave room for the topping), and drop in the slices of young coconut.
4. Place in the fridge to set quickly while you make the topping.

Preparation for the Topping
1. Mix the agar powder with the coconut milk, sugar and salt and heat until dissolved.
2. Top up the jelly moulds with this mixture.

This is a Thai version of creme caramel, instead of vanilla dessert, it uses soya milk set in agar - a type of false tofu we use for dessert dishes.

Ingredients
500 ml Soya Milk
100 gms Sugar
2 Drops Vanilla Essence
5 gms Agar Powder

Ingredients for Caramel Sauce
200 gms Sugar
100 ml Water
1 Drop Vanilla Essence

Preparation
1. Put the soya milk into a saucepan, add the agar powder and warm through until the agar has dissolved. Don't let the soya boil. Add the sugar and stir until that has dissolved too, then pour into a mould and leave to cool in the fridge.
2. To make the caramel, place the sugar and water into a saucepan and boil hard until the sugar has burnt to the brown colour shown in the photograph.
3. Then take it off the heat, and add a little extra water to thin the caramel down and keep it liquid. Be careful when you add the water it will boil vigorously as the sugar is hotter than the boiling point of water.
4. Add a drop of vanilla essence to the caramel to enhance the vanilla taste.
5. Leave to cool.
6. To serve, simply pour the caramel over the false tofu!

A fun little dessert, of agar jelly with eyes in a heart shape made to resemble cats eyes. The eyes are yellow bean flavoured with coconut milk.

Ingredients for Jelly
5 gms Agar
200 ml Water
Food Coloring
50 gms Sugar

Ingredients for Eyes
20 gms Yellow Soya Beans
100 ml Coconut Milk
50 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Soak the yellow bean in warm water for 2 hours, then steam them for 20 minutes by placing them in bowl inside a Chinese steamer.
2. Pound or blend until the beans are ground up.
3. In a small saucepan, place the ground beans, sugar and the coconut milk, then stir over the heat to reduce the mixture to a thick paste, and leave to cool.
4. When the bean paste is cool, take small pieces of it and roll it into balls.
5. Mix the agar with the water in a saucepan and heat until the agar has dissolved. Add a drop or two of food colouring. Then leave to cool, but don't leave it too long or the agar will set.
6. Pour the agar into the mould as it's just getting thick, put two eyes in the correct place, then leave to set.

Rhubard is a European sour vegetable, and isn't a common ingredient in Thai cooking but my friend Jom grows it in abundance and she often wonders what to do with it.

Ingredients
1 Teaspoon Agar
3-4 Sticks Rhubarb
200 gms Sugar

Preparation
1. Clean and peel the rhubarb and cut into 1cm lengths.
2. Cook in a saucepan with 100ml water until soft.
3. Add the sugar and boil until it is dissolved, then add the teaspoon of agar and stir until dissolved.
4. Pour into a mould and leave to cool.

Aliens regularly come eat lunch in Thailand on holiday in their flying saucers. Their favorite dish is this egg spawn dish. You can see the little aliens hatching in the spawn, but don't get too close or they'll leap out and run up your nose! Happy halloween.

Ingredients (Small Amount)
4 Tablespoons Ground Almonds
4 Tablespoons Ground Coconut
4 Tablespoons Rice Flour
4 Tablespoons Water
4 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Mung Bean
1 Drop of Blue Color
Tapioca Pearls

Preparation
1. Soak the tapioca overnight in water.
2. Boil the tapioca pearls in water until they are cooked through and transparent.
3. Mix all the ingredients (except for tapioca) together, heat over a low heat, stirring continuously until the flour forms a sticky blue paste.
4. Mix in the tapioca and serve.

When I was a child we bought these jelly (jello) eggs, 1 baht for 2. We would crack open the egg and eat the jelly contents inside as a treat. They are eggs with the white and yolk removed, filled with jelly and coconut milk.
Thai jelly uses agar in place of gelatin and the jelly is very strong, more like a gum than a jelly. For this recipe we are using twice the amount of gelatin than is usual in order to simulate this strength. In the photograph we've removed the shell but they should be served still inside the shell with the hole hidden at the bottom in an egg cup, so that your guests can have the surprise of cracking open the egg and revealing the jelly inside.

Ingredients
6 Large Eggs
20g Gelatin
400 mls Water
100 mls Coconut Milk
100 gms Sugar
3 Drops Vanilla Essence
6 Drops Food Colouring

Preparation
1. Mix the gelatin with the sugar and water in a boiling pan.
2. Heat until it just boils, then turn off the heat and leave to cool, the gelatin should be fully dissolved.
3. Take each egg, cut off the top to form a small hole using a sharp knife with a sawing action.
4. Empty the contents of the egg into a bowl you may have to break the yolk to get it out - we can use these to make an omelette later.
5. Fill and empty the eggs with water several times to clean them.
6. Boil some water in a kettle or pan and pour the boiling water into each egg and leave for a few minutes to sterilize the inside of the eggs.
7. When the gelatin mixture is cooler we can add the coconut milk and food colouring.
8. Add the coconut milk to the gelatin.
9. Separate the mixture into 3 bowls and colour each bowl with different food colourings. If you prefer you can make a clear jelly and a coconut jelly and make more layers.
10. It is then a simple matter of layering, pour a small layer of coloured jelly into the egg, place in a very cold fridge to set it quickly. Repeat for each layer in the egg until the egg is full of jelly.
11. Leave it in the fridge to set thoroughly.

Suggestions
These are ideal treats for easter in place of easter eggs.

The western tradition is that the dessert is sweet. The Thai tradition is slightly different, the Thai word for dessert is 'kanom' and covers all types of post main course dishes & snacks. This leads to some very strange desserts and this is one of them. The top layer is whiter and made from coconut milk and is very salty, the lower layer is very sweet and contains corn. The idea is that the two layers balance out, when eating this dessert you should take some from both layers with your spoon - a little sweet and a little salt.

Ingredients for Sweet Part
100 gms Rice flour
150 gms Sugar
150 ml Rose Water
30 gms Corn Flour

Ingredient for Salty Topping
100 mls Coconut Milk
2 Tablespoons Rice Flour
2 Teaspoons Sugar
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds

Preparation for Sweet Part
1. Mix the sugar and the with rice flour.
2. Add the rose water and stir until the flour is well mixed.
3. Place on a medium heat and keep stirring until the flour is cooked - it will lose its whiteness and become more transparent.
4. Add the corn and stir to mix it in.
5. Spoon it into the base of the serving dishes and leave to cool.

Preparation for the Topping
1. Mix the sugar, flour and salt together.
2. Add the coconut milk and stir it until well mixed.
3. Put it on low heat and stir it until the flour is cooked.
4. Spoon it out ontop of the sweet mixture and place in the fridge.
5. Put sesame seed in a small frying pan, heat the pan and brown the seeds for the rich nut fragrance to develop. This takes only 30 seconds or so.
6. Drop a few sesame seeds onto each serving.

Notes
Corn is typical for this dish, however pear can be used too if corn does not appeal to you. You can serve this dessert still warm if you prefer.

We love jelly (jello for our American readers) and this one is a favorite. It is a jelly softened with soya milk and flavoured with pineapple. We moulded it in plastic heart boxes which are also very typical Thai products, but you can use regular jelly moulds. You can make a vegetarian jelly by substituting agar (made from seaweed) for the gelatin (made from meat collagen).

Ingredients for Family Portion
230 ml Soya Milk
75 ml Water
60 ml Milk
115 ml Pineapple Juice
1 Tablespoon Gelatin (5gms)
100 gms Sugar
70 gms Pineapple

Preparation
1. Mix the water and gelatin in a boiling and heat until the gelatin dissolves.
2. Add the soya milk, milk, pineapple juice, and sugar, into the pan and heat until nearly boiling.
3. Leave to cool then put it in the jelly moulds and add the pineapple.
4. Leave in the fridge for 4-5 hours to set.

This is a two layer dessert, a jelly bottom layer and a top creamy layer that comes from mashed pumpkin. It's the combination of the two textures that make this a nice dessert. The flavouring for the green one is Bi-Tuoy (the bubblegum flavouring made from Pandan leaves). You can also buy pandan essence in shops if you can't get the leaves.

Ingredients For Lower Layer
20 gms Bi Tuoy (Pandan) Leaves
300 ml Water
100 gms Sugar
5 gms Agar Agar Jelly Powder

Ingredients for Pumpkin Layer
230 ml Coconut Milk
100 gms Pumpkin
20 gms Sugar
A Pinch of Salt
5 gms Agar Agar Jelly

Preparation
1. Lower Layer: Blend the bituoy leaves with water, bring the mix to the boil and simmer for a minute. Strain into a second pan you keep the green liquid and throw away the leaf pulp.
2. Add the sugar and agar to the hot green liquid and stir until dissolved. Pour into a tray and leave to cool and set with the tray at a slant, it makes for a prettier effect.
3. Pumpkin Layer: Cut the pumpkin into large cubes and boil in water until soft. Drain and mash.
4. Mix the mashed cooked pumpkin, coconut milk, sugar, agar, and salt and heat while stirring till the sugar has dissolved and the mix is smooth.
5. Leave to cool a little and pour over the bituoy layer, but be careful, agar sets very quickly, you want it to be cool enough to pour on the bituoy layer, but not to let it set. If you are more use to using gelatin as the setting agent agar can be a surprise - it sets above room temperature.