Kuih Celorot

Ingredients

Batter

• 200 grice flour
• 50 gsago flour
• or tapioca flour
• 600 mlthick coconut milk
• 250 ggula apong
• or gula melaka, palm sugar
• 200 mlwater
• 1/2 teaspoonsalt
• 2pandan leaves, knotted

Cones

• young palm fronds
• nipah or coconut leaf
• or greaseproof paper
• staples or small sticks

To serve

• pushed up from the bottom
• with tea
• at Hari Raya

Directions

1. Take one young palm frond to start. Strip the leaf away from the central rib. Rolling them takes real practice. Hold one end and wind the leaf round it. Keep the point tight and closed. Roll them the same way and staple them.
2. Chop the palm sugar into small pieces. Put it in a pan with the water. Add the knotted pandan leaves. Warm it until the sugar dissolves. Strain the syrup through a fine sieve.
3. Discard the pandan and the debris. Let it cool a little before mixing. Put both flours in a large bowl. Add the measured salt to them as well. Pour in the coconut milk gradually. Whisk it as you pour to avoid lumps.
4. Add the cooled palm sugar syrup. Whisk it all together until smooth. Pour the batter through a fine sieve. A smooth batter gives a smooth paste.
5. Keep it genuinely thin throughout. Stir it well before every pour. Otherwise the last cones are all water. Stand the cones upright in a rack. Pour the batter into each cone.
6. Fill them up nearly to the top. The cones must stay upright throughout. Pack them together so they support each other. Bring water to a boil in a steamer. Stand the filled cones in it upright. Cover it and steam them steadily. Give them about twenty minutes.
7. Wrap the lid in a cloth to catch it. That keeps the paste at the right texture. Take them out and stand them upright. Let them cool down completely there. They firm up considerably as they cool. Serve hot tea alongside them all. They keep two days at room temperature. Keep them somewhere cool instead.

Technique

• The cone is rolled from a young palm frond with the point at the bottom, filled with batter and steamed upright; to eat it the point is snipped and the set paste pushed up from underneath, emerging in a soft spiral, which is the whole pleasure of the dish.
• Rice flour gives the body and sago or tapioca flour gives the stretch, and together they give the right slipperiness; rice flour alone sets too firm and crumbly to push out of the cone.
• The paste must cool completely before serving, since hot paste is far too soft and simply collapses out of the cone; refrigeration goes too far the other way and makes it hard and grainy, so keep them somewhere cool instead.

Substitutions

• Gula melaka stands in for gula apong, sweeter and less smoky.
• Greaseproof paper cones work the same way but give no leaf flavour.

Variations

• Some cooks add more pandan for a stronger green aroma.
• The depth of colour varies with the palm sugar used.
• It is made in quantity for Hari Raya in Brunei.

History

Eaten by pushing the soft paste up from the bottom of the cone; made in Brunei for Hari Raya.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kuih Celorot?

Kuih Celorot is a dessert from Brunei: coconut and palm sugar batter steamed inside a rolled palm-leaf cone. Eaten by pushing the soft paste up from the bottom of the cone; made in Brunei for Hari Raya.

How long does Kuih Celorot take to make?

Kuih Celorot takes 1 hour plus rolling cones of preparation and 25 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes about 20 cones. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Kuih Celorot?

Yes, within limits. Gula melaka stands in for gula apong, sweeter and less smoky. Greaseproof paper cones work the same way but give no leaf flavour.

What is the most important thing to get right in Kuih Celorot?

Take one young palm frond to start. Strip the leaf away from the central rib. Rolling them takes real practice. Hold one end and wind the leaf round it. Keep the point tight and closed. Roll them the same way and staple them.