By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

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9-step Thai dessert
comes with chewy
layers of flavor

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This request, I confess, has been sitting around for nearly a year as I have tried to figure out how to even begin.

Pelican Qeluzsva, e-mailing from Kewaunee, Wis., sought directions for Kanom Chan, also called Nine Steps, a mochi-like layered Thai dessert flavored with jasmine and pandan leaves. Qeluzsva described it as "nine-layered and wiggly."

Alanna Higdon, a senior at West Oahu College studying food anthropology, took on this request as a personal challenge, saving me a whole lot of work. Her research included talking to vendors and shoppers in Chinatown who could make the dish but whose measurements consisted of "a little bit of this and a pinch of that."

It was a yeomanlike effort. In the end, Higdon says, the recipe is not difficult, just time-consuming, as each layer is steamed separately.

To tackle this you must first go on a shopping expedition in Chinatown, but Higdon has done the scouting. Find jasmine flavoring, pandan extract juice, rice flour and tapioca starch at Hong Fa Market, 115 N. Hotel St. Find fresh pandan leaves at Nhung Fa Market, 145 N. King St. No. 16, for $1 per bundle. Some items are also available at 99 Ranch Market.

Kanom Chan

2 cups flour
2 cups rice flour
2 cups tapioca starch
5 cups water
5 cups sugar
1 teaspoon jasmine flavoring
6 cups coconut milk
1 teaspoon pandan extract juice (see note)

Place a steamer pot filled with water on the stove and bring to a boil over high heat.

Sift flours together into a large bowl and set aside.

Combine water, sugar and jasmine flavoring in a large pot. Boil over medium high heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves.

Add jasmine water and coconut milk to the flour mixture and mix until combined. Strain to remove any lumps of flour. The mixture should be smooth. Divide into two bowls.

Add pandan extract juice to one of the bowls and mix well, turning the batter green. This will give you 1 bowl of green batter and 1 bowl of white.

Place a springform or loaf pan into the steamer and lower heat to medium (if heat is too high, the mixture will scorch and bubbles will form). Pour a thin layer of green batter into the pan; cover and steam 5 minutes. (If cover is metal, put a towel under it to absorb condensation. Use tongs to remove the hot towel.)

When the first layer is cooked, add a thin layer of white batter; steam 5 minutes. Repeat until you have 9 layers, the last one being green. Be sure each layer is completely cooked before adding the next, or the finished product will fall apart. To check, gently tilt the pan, using a pair of tongs. If the middle of the layer is runny, cook longer.

When all layers are cooked, remove from steamer and cool, then slice.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Note: Fresh pandan juice has a more herbal taste. To make it, wash 15 pandan leaves and cut into small pieces. Take 1 cup of the water-sugar-jasmine mixture and place in a blender, along with a handful of chopped leaves. Blend until leaves turn into pulp. Continue to add leaves by the handful until all the pieces are ground. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer; discard pulp. Mix all of the juice into batter as indicated above.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.