39 recipes. Page 1 of 2
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Instead of flour or batter, the coating here is coconut milk and a turmeric, garlic, and ginger paste simmered down until it clings to the chicken. Fried afterward, that layer turns deep gold with rough, crunchy nubs rather than a smooth shell.
Black rice flour turns these muffins a deep purple and adds a toasty, nutty grain flavor that coconut then sweetens. Coconut milk and neutral oil stand in for dairy and butter, which keeps the crumb soft even after the muffins have cooled completely.
Breaded pork cutlet, boiled potato, and softened cabbage share the plate, all under a single coconut milk curry sauce. Singapore's Hainanese curry rice usually comes with braised pork and several gravies; this home version drops those and keeps one sauce. The cutlet is a fully cooked store-bought one that only needs reheating, so there is no frying involved. Pour the sauce over just before eating, or the crust turns soggy.
This Thai dessert starts the night before, since the glutinous rice needs at least six hours of soaking and ideally a full night. Hot from the steamer, the rice gets warm coconut milk with sugar and salt poured over and sits covered until the grains soak it up, sweet with a little saltiness. Ripe mango is sliced just before serving and laid alongside.
Seventy grams of cooked, cooled black rice turns this smoothie a deep purple. It is blended thick with coconut milk, banana and date syrup, then topped with toasted coconut chips.
Turmeric, lemongrass, and coconut milk stain the chicken breast yellow, and the edges turn golden brown over a hot grill or pan. The sauce here is a quick one: peanut butter loosened with coconut milk and seasoned with fish sauce and sugar. Satay began in Java and changed as it spread to Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.
Instead of the offal and many garnishes found in fuller versions of this Jakarta soup, this home recipe makes its beef broth from brisket, coconut milk and a ground paste of onion, garlic and ginger cooked in oil. The milky color comes from the coconut milk added at the end, with no need to wait for a cloudy stock. Brisket is the slow part, and a cooked-looking surface says little; a fork should slide easily into the center. Rice is served on the side.
Poached white fish gets mashed fine and stirred into a red curry and coconut milk sauce, where the fish disappears into the gravy instead of sitting in chunks. Its poaching water, scented with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, returns to the pot as the stock and keeps a herbal note under the richness of the coconut. Fish sauce and palm sugar set the salty-sweet balance. The rice noodles stay plain: they are boiled, rinsed, and simply drowned in hot sauce. All the seasoning has to come from the curry, which should be loose enough to run between the strands. In Thailand the plate comes with raw bean sprouts, morning glory, green chili, and lime for each diner to mix in. The dish began at royal banquets, yet today it is ordinary market-stall food.
Most of the effort goes into a wet paste of onion, garlic, and ginger, fried slowly until the oil separates from the solids. Rushing it leaves a raw, harsh edge in the sauce. After that, chicken thighs simmer in coconut milk with turmeric, ground coriander, and lemongrass until the sauce turns bright yellow and thick enough to coat the meat. Ayam gulai belongs to the Padang food of West Sumatra's Minangkabau people, whose restaurants lay out many small plates before anyone orders and charge only for the ones you touch.
Sweet rice flour mixed with milk, coconut milk, eggs and melted butter makes a batter thin enough to pour like liquid. A long bake turns the bottom dense and chewy like mochi, with only a thin golden-brown crust on top. The cake comes from Hawaii, and a short reheat crisps that top again.
A whole piece of chicken thigh, rubbed with turmeric and cumin, comes on top of rice cooked in coconut milk. The spice and coconut reach right into the rice, and a spicy dipping sauce on the side sharpens the whole plate.
Coconut milk and palm sugar in the marinade caramelize on the grill, giving the pork neck dark, sticky edges. The meat is sliced thin and folded three times onto each skewer, with small gaps between the pieces letting heat reach the thickest fold quickly.
Galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves steep in coconut milk alone, with no water or stock. Coconut milk splits if it boils hard, and the pot is kept at the barest simmer with only small bubbles at the edge. The woody galangal and lemongrass can be fished out before serving.
Egg noodles show up twice in one bowl: boiled underneath and fried crisp on top, giving soft and crunchy textures in the same spoonful. This coconut curry noodle soup comes from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, with chicken thighs simmered gently in red curry and coconut milk until the meat falls apart. Sliced shallot, lime and cilantro cut through the richness.
Bird's eye chili, shallot, and fresh turmeric are blended into the paste for this Malay coconut chicken, which comes out hot, pale gold, and brothy rather than thick. It simmers uncovered and gently, and stops well before reducing to a sauce, leaving thin liquid around the thighs. Fresh turmeric gives an earthy, slightly bitter smell as the paste fries, while the lemongrass is only there to perfume the broth and comes out before serving.
Cut a slice and the layers read clearly: golden crust, cream-colored custard, white whipped cream, and a scatter of toasted coconut that adds crunch. Cooked from coconut milk and regular milk, the custard has a clear coconut flavor and, once chilled, holds firm on a fork.
In Penang, nasi kandar usually means rice flooded with several curry gravies mixed together, a style called kuah campur. This version keeps it to a single coconut chicken curry with halved boiled eggs. The curry is deliberately left thin so it seeps between the grains, and the rice is cooked a little drier than usual so it can soak up that gravy without going soft.
White fish is blended smooth with coconut milk, egg white and red curry paste, spread in a thin strip on banana leaves, folded up and grilled on both sides. While the leaf edges char, the paste inside sets like a firm custard and takes on a faint smokiness. In Malaysia and Singapore it is eaten with rice or as a snack on its own.
Laksa paste fried until dark, then loosened with shrimp stock and coconut milk, gives this Singapore and Malaysia noodle soup its spicy, creamy broth. Full-fat coconut milk matters, since its fat sets the body of the soup; light versions come out thin. Hard boiling can split the coconut milk, so it simmers gently with the bottom stirred. Rice vermicelli, shrimp, fried tofu, bean sprouts, boiled egg and lime fill each bowl.
Crisp at the edges and custard-soft in the middle, these small cup-shaped pancakes come from Vung Tau on Vietnam's southern coast. Coconut milk in the rice batter adds a gentle richness, and shrimp and scallion placed on top cook with the batter before it sets. They are wrapped in lettuce or herbs and dipped in a fish sauce and sugar mix.
In the Philippines, bibingka is sold outside churches after the dawn Masses of the Christmas season, baked in clay pots lined with banana leaves over charcoal. Coals above and below cook both surfaces at once and keep the inside moist, while the leaves leave a green fragrance and faint dark marks on the underside. This version swaps all that for a round pan in a regular oven, and it leaves out the salted duck egg and coconut slices that vendors press on top midway. Rice flour and coconut milk give a texture somewhere between a rice cake and a sponge cake: a little chewy, but still soft and springy.
Nasi kerabu, a Malaysian rice dish, can be made with rice tinted by flowers; this one uses plain white rice cooked with coconut milk and lemongrass. Flaked grilled mackerel, cucumber, blanched bean sprouts and sambal are set around it separately and mixed in only at the table.
Laksa paste fried in oil until it bleeds red does most of the work, and coconut milk and chicken stock turn it into a spicy, creamy broth. Fried tofu puffs act like sponges, soaking up that broth so they burst when bitten, while the shrimp spend just 3 minutes in the pot and stay plump. This style of curry noodle soup is everyday food in Singapore and Malaysia. Coconut milk turns thick and heavy as it cools, so the bowls go to the table as soon as the broth is poured.
The name echoes the loud sizzle the batter makes when it hits a hot, oiled pan. In southern Vietnam this turmeric-yellow crepe, crisp and lacy at the edges, is torn into pieces, wrapped in lettuce with mint and perilla, and dipped in nuoc cham.