Burmese · Dessert · Served at I Still Call It Burma (#2 and #3)
Mont lone yay baw
Rice dumplings with molten palm sugar
Chewy glutinous rice balls with a chunk of palm sugar inside that melts when you boil them, so the first bite runs. I make the dough with pandan juice and serve them on banana leaf with shredded coconut, toasted sesame, and a drizzle of pandan syrup.
Sweet coconut cream with toasted sesame is the other way I've done them, and it's in here as the alternative.
Adapted from Soe Naing Tun's mote lone yay paw at Myanmar Mix (opens in a new tab), with the water and pandan juice adjusted.
- Yield
- About 15–20 balls, serves 4
Ingredients
Serves
Pandan syrup
- 3pandan leaves
- ¼ cupwater
- ¼ cupsugar
Pandan juice
- 5–6pandan leaves (fresh or thawed), chopped
- 1–2 tbspwater, as little as possible
Filling
- 175–200 gjaggery or palm sugar (solid discs, not paste), in generous ½" chunks
Dough
- 200 gglutinous rice flour
- 58 grice flour
- 2 tbspplain flour
- ~200–225 mlwater, starting at 200 ml
- about 3 tbsppandan juice, from above
Garnish
- ½fresh coconut, grated (or 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut plus a splash of warm coconut milk)
- pinchsalt
- ½ tspsugar
- 1½ tbspsesame seeds, toasted
- banana leaves, cut into 6–7" squares
- sweet coconut cream, for the alternative version (optional)
Method
- Make the pandan syrup: simmer the 3 pandan leaves in the ¼ cup water and ¼ cup sugar for 10 minutes. Strain and cool.
- Make the pandan juice: blend the chopped pandan leaves with 1–2 tbsp water, as little as possible. Strain hard. You need about 3 tbsp.
- Chop the jaggery or palm sugar into generous ½" chunks, bigger than you think. One piece per ball.
- Make the dough: combine the glutinous rice flour, rice flour, and plain flour. Add the pandan juice and about 200–225 ml water, starting at 200 ml; the pandan juice replaces some of the water. Knead until smooth and not sticky, like Play-Doh.
- Form the balls: take a 1" piece of dough, flatten it, wrap a palm sugar chunk, seal, and roll smooth. You should get 15–20.
- Prep the coconut: grate a fresh coconut, or rehydrate 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut with a splash of warm coconut milk for 5 minutes. Season with a pinch of salt and ½ tsp sugar. Toast the sesame if not already done.
- Prep the banana leaves: keep frozen, thaw 30 minutes, wipe, and cut 6–7" squares across the veins. A quick pass over a flame makes them flexible.
- Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Cook them in two batches. They sink, then float: 3–5 minutes from fresh, 5–7 from frozen.
- Serve immediately, 4 or 5 balls per plate, with the coconut and sesame and 1–2 tsp pandan syrup.
- If you're making the coconut cream version, spoon sweet coconut cream instead of, or under, the shredded coconut.
Notes
- They harden as they cool. Hold boiled balls in the cooking water with the heat off for at most 15 minutes.
- You can form the balls up to 3 days ahead, wrapped tightly so they don't dry and crack, or freeze them for a week: lay them on a parchment-lined sheet pan, not touching, freeze solid, then bag. The syrup keeps a week in the fridge. Boil them at the last minute.
