Kanom Krok
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Author Notes: I travel to Thailand to visit family about once every two years and one of my first orders of business every time I arrive is to find the nearest source of kanom krok. These little hotcakes are made by street vendors everywhere in these giant, cast-iron pans -- think aebeliskiver pan on steroids -- and they are served piping hot to eager customers who pop them in their mouths while the cakes are still steaming and gooey with cream. Just writing about it makes me want to hop on the next plane there! You can make a smaller scale version of these cakes at home with a regular aebeliskiver pan. They are almost as good as the streetside version in Thailand, but you will quickly learn why the vendors there use giant pans -- supply can't keep up with demand with the smaller pans! You can try anyway and just eat the cakes as they finish.
The traditional way to serve these cakes is with a bit of green onion or chive in the middle; Thai cooks love mixing sweet and savory flavors. But if you are uncomfortable with conflating dinner and dessert, you can certainly leave them out. To be honest, I usually do!
- vrunka
Makes 30 hotcakes
- 3 14-ounce cans coconut milk (not light!) (approx 5-1/4 cups)
- 1/3 cup sugar, divided
- 3 tablespoons tapioca or corn starch
- 1/4 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
- 3 teaspoons white rice, raw
- 2 cups rice flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- canola oil for brushing the pan
- 2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped (optional)
- Open all three cans of coconut milk -- be careful not to shake them! Skim off the heavy cream at the top until you have about 1-3/4 cups of heavy cream. Place this cream in a small sauce pan along with the sugar (reserve about 2 tablespoons of sugar for later). Bring to a low boil, whisking out the lumps. Remove from heat once the consistency is smooth and the sugar has dissolved. In a small bowl, combine the corn starch with a couple tablespoons of the remaining coconut water and whisk that into the coconut cream.
- In a food processor, spice grinder, or mortar and pestle, grind the coconut and the rice until it is a fine, sand-like consistency. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, heat the remaining coconut milk over medium heat until just warmed enough to melt the solids. Remove from heat and whisk in the ground coconut and rice, the rice flour, salt, and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Pour into a pitcher or other container with a spout (in Thailand the street vendors use a metal teapot which works great).
- Heat the aebelskiver pan over medium high heat. Once hot, brush with a bit of oil. Fill the cups about the 3/4 full with the rice batter. Top off each one with the coconut cream. If you are using chives, add them now. Cover with a lid and cook for about 3-5 minutes until the bottom becomes brown and crispy and the top bubbles (the batter will remain a little liquid in the center). Use a spoon (ideally, a metal soup spoon) to remove the cakes. Repeat with remaining batter, brushing pan with oil before each batch. They are served one on top of another to make a little globe of sweet, gooey goodness. Eat immediately!
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Coconut
- This recipe was entered in the contest for Your Best Pancakes, Sweet or Savory
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5 days ago clintonhillbilly
I love these things! There's a Thai couple that makes them at a farmer's market here in LA (interestingly, fresh aebelskivers are sold at the same farmer's market).
about 1 year ago gingerroot
These sound amazing!
about 1 year ago vrunka
oh, dear. I forgot an ingredient -- there's supposed to be 2 teaspoons of salt that gets added to the rice batter!
about 1 year ago hardlikearmour
hardlikearmour is a trusted home cook.
Delish! Make sure to tell me the next time you make these, and I'll head on over. I'm a huge fan of coconut.
about 1 year ago LE BEC FIN
pp. that's chaukoh.
about 1 year ago LE BEC FIN
p.s. i bet you could save yourself alot of trouble by just using rice flour instead of grinding the rice...?
best,
mindy
about 1 year ago vrunka
Hi Mindy, thanks for the suggestion. the recipe actually calls for two different kinds of rice -- flour and ground -- to give it slightly different textures. it's pretty subtle, though, so you could just substitute three additional tablespoons of rice flour. thanks for the tip on the coconut milk!
about 1 year ago LE BEC FIN
oooh oooh oooh!!!!! Melty coconut insides!!! Fan TAStic! vrunka, i have been making alot of coconut milk pancake recipes for this contest and I have found that the Chaucoh coconut millk is very thick throughout the can. I really like this brand.