Thai Snacks: Sweet and Savory to Make Yourself

The basic ingredients: rice flour and glutinous rice flour

For sweet Thai snacks you need two flours that look almost identical in the store:

• Rice flour from ordinary rice (package label "rice flour"): makes firm, slightly grainy batters and puddings. For kanom krok and khanom chan.
• Glutinous rice flour ("glutinous rice flour"): turns chewy and elastic like mochi when cooked. For kanom tom and kanom ba bin.

If you swap the two, the dough falls apart or turns rubbery. Both flours are gluten-free. You also need coconut milk, palm sugar, freshly grated or dried coconut and often Pandan for scent and color. Coconut Milk describes the right coconut milk for desserts.

Sweet snacks of coconut and rice flour

From the pan

• Kanom Krok: small coconut pancakes, crisp on the bottom and creamy on top, baked in a cast iron pan with half-sphere hollows. You fold two halves together. For about 30 pieces, stir 100 g rice flour with 250 ml coconut milk, 50 g sugar and a pinch of salt for the base. The cream on top is made of 200 ml coconut cream, 1 tbsp rice flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Bake the filled hollows covered over medium heat for four to five minutes. An aebleskiver pan or a takoyaki pan replaces the Thai original.
• Kanom Ba Bin: flatbreads of glutinous rice flour, shredded coconut, sugar and coconut milk, baked in the pan until the edges are golden brown and crisp.
• Thai Roti: dough pulled paper-thin with banana and egg, fried in butter and drizzled with condensed milk and sugar. The dough has to rest for several hours in oil so it stretches.

Boiled and steamed

• Kanom Tom: glutinous rice balls with a filling of shredded coconut and palm sugar, boiled in water until they float and rolled in fresh coconut. For 20 pieces you need about 150 g glutinous rice flour.
• Khanom Chan: layered cake of rice and tapioca flour with coconut milk. You steam each layer separately before the next goes on, with nine being classic. Pandan colors the green layers.
• Kanom Tuay: two-layer puddings in small cups, sweet with pandan on the bottom and a slightly salty coconut cream on top.
• Khao Tom Mud: sticky rice with coconut milk and a piece of banana, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. The packets keep well for on the go.

Baked

Kanom Ping are small, delicate coconut cookies made from tapioca flour that dissolve on the tongue. They keep for up to two weeks in an airtight tin.

Savory snacks

• Tod Man Pla: fish cakes of fish paste, red curry paste, makrut lime leaves and sliced green beans, deep-fried. Springy to the bite, served with a sweet and sour cucumber dip.
• Tod Man Kung: shrimp cakes in panko, crisp outside, served with sweet plum or chili sauce.
• Gai Satay: grilled chicken skewers marinated in turmeric and coconut milk, with peanut sauce and cucumber salad.
• Moo Dad Deaw: marinated pork, dried for a day and fried. At home it dries in the oven at 60 to 70 °C (140 to 160 °F) with the door slightly open in three to four hours.

Thais buy many of these snacks at the market or from a street stall. The guide Thai Street Food shows the dishes of the stalls sorted by time of day.

Shopping and equipment

You can buy rice flour, glutinous rice flour, tapioca starch, palm sugar and coconut milk at an Asian grocery store, the flours usually in bags of 400 to 500 g. Well-stocked supermarkets carry rice flour and coconut milk, and often glutinous rice flour in the Asian aisle. Freshly grated coconut is in the freezer at the Asian grocery store and tastes juicier than dried shreds. You find banana leaves there frozen as well. Before wrapping, pass them briefly over a gas flame or pour hot water over them, and they won't tear. For equipment, you need a steamer insert or bamboo basket, small heatproof cups for kanom tuay and an aebleskiver or takoyaki pan. For the savory snacks, a pot of oil and a thermometer are enough.

Snack platter for guests: amounts and timing

For six people, plan two sweet and two savory snacks. Allow three to four pieces of each kind per person.

1. The day before: steam the khanom chan or kanom tuay and chill them covered. Marinate the satay meat.
2. Two hours before: mix the fish paste for tod man pla and chill it, and stir together the peanut sauce and cucumber dip.
3. One hour before: shape and boil the kanom tom. They taste best lukewarm.
4. To serve: grill the satay and fry the tod man pla, both straight to the table.

Shelf life, allergens and common mistakes

Snacks made from glutinous rice flour turn hard in the fridge. Eat them on the same day or steam them for five minutes. Desserts with coconut milk keep for two days covered in the fridge. Fried snacks taste best fresh, and in the oven at 180 °C (350 °F) they turn crisp again in five minutes.

Allergens: Tod man pla contains fish and shrimp paste, tod man kung contains shellfish, gluten from panko and egg. Satay sauce contains peanuts. Thai roti contains wheat, egg and milk. The sweet rice flour snacks are gluten-free as long as no wheat flour is added.

• Kanom krok stick: The pan must be well preheated and brushed with oil.
• Kanom tom burst: The dough was too dry. Knead it until it is soft like modeling clay and shows no cracks.
• Tod man pla rubbery: The paste was mixed too long or fried too hot. At 170 °C they need three to four minutes.