The Art of Making Khao Dom Ga Ti - Sticky Rice in Coconut Wrapped in Banana Leaves

Ingredients for Khao Dom Ga Ti - Sticky Rice in Coconut Wrapped in Banana Leaves*

• 4 cups glutinous "Sticky" Rice (khao niao)
• 1 cup sugar (nam tan)
• 400mls coconut water or coconut milk watered down (nam maprao)
• 5-10 bananas (gluay) cut length-ways and then into 5cm pieces (small bananas are better)
• 1 teaspoon salt (glua)
• peanuts (tua din) (optional)
• banana leaves (bai dtaawng)(pre-cut into pieces 25cm (L) x 14cm (W)(baking paper may work instead of banana leaves but I haven't tried it)

*the amount for each ingredients is variable according to taste and how many &lqt;parcels&rqt; you want to make. Makes about 40 parcels. Yai (Grandmother) showed me how to make this recipe. Your banana leaf parcels may not look neat and tidy to begin with but practice makes perfect. 1. Cook the rice by first washing the rice and then soaking it for 1 hour or overnight. Cook in a steamer with the salt and peanuts for about 20 minutes. 2. Boil the coconut water rapidly for 10 minutes, then add the sugar 3. When the rice is cooked stir into coconut water until thoroughly combined taking care not to let it burn on the bottom of the pan. 4. Put a dessert spoonful of rice length-ways in a banana leaf. Place a slice of banana on top of the rice then put another spoonful of rice on top of the banana. 5. Wrap by rolling tightly length-ways and then folding over and tucking under the ends of the banana leaf. It's important to pack the rice tightly in the parcel (it takes a little practice). The finished size of the parcel should be about 10cm long x 4cm wide. 6. Place parcels in a steamer for 10 minutes. Enjoy hot or cold.
Yummy - Saab Lai

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo

Favourite Thai Esaan (Nth East) Food

Have you tried spicy Som Dum? It's a Lao style salad and a staple food in the Esaan (also spelt Esarn, Isaan, Isan in English) (meaning Lao) area of North East Thailand. It's made from fresh green papaya (green mango, or cucumber), with cherry tomatoes, lime, fish sauce, sometimes peanuts, carrot, tiny shrimps or crab and always with chilli (Prik)!!! Every day I hear the sound of "pok pok" the nick name for Som Dum as women make Som Dum by pounding it with a pestle inside a morter. There's even a movie by the same name. In the movie a farang (foreigner) eats Som Dum and it makes him so crazy that he demolishes the restaurant. He later uses his extraordinary strength from eating Som Dum to beat up the baddies. Try it to see if you get Som Dum strength!

Also in the photo is another favourite Esaan staple: Laab. Laab is a kind of minced salad (again from Laos), made with minced chicken (gai), pork (moo), beef (nuea) or local favs. fish (pla) or waterbuffalo (gnuea). The buffalo is smililar to beef but is a bit tougher and doesn't really have a strong flavour. The mince is mixed with rice powder (the rice has been fried and then ground into a powder), ubiquitous fish sauce, dried chilli, lime, chicken stock or water and garnished with mint, thai basil, coriander or other herbs. An important purpose of vegetables here is to be "Ghin gup Laab" to eat with Laab. So Laab is served with fresh vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, beans, small round eggplant, cucumber or other greens - yum.

In the picture we are eating steamed rice (Khao Jao in Essan or Khao Soi in central Thailand), but usually we eat both these dishes with sticky rice (Khao Niao). The sticky rice is rolled into balls, eaten with Laab and Som Dum using your fingers. For steamed rice you use a fork and spoon. There's also some chicken in the picture, we had a feast that day! (Oops we'd just started to eat and I remembered to take a pic). From the photo we can tell it's not taken in the North East because there's no Khao Niao. We eat Khao Niao usually three times a day here (that's in the rural Thai village of Ban Pao in Kaeset Sombun). The rice is freshly harvested from Apichart's family's rice paddy fields. Did you know that rice growing in the rice paddy smells like freshly cooked rice only a bit sweeter?

The Earth's waters are both boundaries and pathways for peoples, objects and ideas.

Fumio Nanjo