Ingredients
The sap
- 1.5 litresfresh sugar palm sap
- collected the same morning
- kept cold since collection
- see the notes before drinking it raw
Sometimes added
- ice
- a squeeze of lime
- a pinch of salt
- fresh palm fruit flesh
- sliced thinly
For the boiled version
- the same fresh sap
- a heavy wide pan
- a fine sieve or muslin
To make palm sugar
- several litres of sap
- a very wide shallow pan
- a wooden paddle
- moulds or coconut shells
Directions
- Keep it cold from the moment it is collected. Anyone concerned should drink the boiled version. Strain it through a fine sieve when you get it. Line the sieve with muslin for a cleaner result.
- Chill it immediately in the coldest part of the fridge. Drink it within a few hours if drinking it raw. Serve it very cold, over plenty of ice. It gives a pleasant soft texture to the drink.
- Pour the strained sap into a wide heavy pan. Bring it to a boil over a medium heat. Skim off the foam that rises to the surface. Boil it for ten minutes to make it safe.
- Let it cool and then chill it thoroughly. It keeps for three days in the refrigerator.
- Pour the strained sap into a very wide shallow pan. Boil it steadily and stir it from time to time. This takes hours rather than minutes.
- Pour it into moulds or into coconut shells. Turn it out and wrap it for storage. Never lean over the pan or taste from it.
- Cool it for a full twenty minutes and get advice. Keep children well away from the pan entirely. It is a hot-weather drink above everything else.
Technique
- Fresh palm sap begins fermenting within hours of collection, because wild yeasts are already on the tree. Sap more than a few hours old is on its way to becoming palm wine. Keep it cold from the moment it is tapped.
- Raw palm sap is a documented transmission route for Nipah virus in Bangladesh and India, where fruit bats feed from the collecting pots at night and contaminate the sap. Nipah causes severe and frequently fatal illness. The atlas has no data on the risk in Cambodia and will not invent any, but the remedy is simple and worth stating: boiling destroys the virus, and covering the collecting pots greatly reduces contamination. Anyone concerned should drink the boiled version.
- Tapping is dangerous work. Sugar palms are very tall, climbers go up twice a day for months on a notched bamboo ladder, and falls cause serious injury and death. That risk sits with the tapper.
- Tappers often place pieces of particular wood or bark in the collecting tube to slow fermentation and keep the sap sweet. Which material is used varies by region; it is a traditional practice rather than an additive.
- Boiling sap down to palm sugar means working with concentrated sugar syrup, which is far hotter than boiling water and sticks to skin. Never lean over the pan or taste from it. If it splashes, cool the skin under running water for a full twenty minutes.
- Palm sugar is not interchangeable with white sugar in Cambodian cooking. It carries a caramel and faintly smoky character that white sugar cannot supply.
- Almost every part of the sugar palm is used — leaves for thatch and weaving, trunk for timber, fruit and jelly seeds for eating, sap for drink, sugar and vinegar. Its silhouette over the rice plains is a genuine national emblem.
Substitutions
- Boiled sap replaces raw sap for anyone concerned about the Nipah risk, and it keeps three days rather than a few hours.
- Fresh coconut water is the nearest widely available drink in character, though it is not the same thing and the atlas does not pretend otherwise.
- Palm sugar dissolved in water with a squeeze of lime approximates the flavour of the boiled drink, and is what a cook outside the region can realistically make.
- A pinch of salt or a squeeze of lime sharpens the sweetness and is commonly added by vendors.
- Nipa palm and coconut sap are tapped and drunk the same way in neighbouring countries.
Variations
- Tuk tnaot chu is the naturally fermented version, a lightly alcoholic palm wine that develops within a day if the sap is left warm.
- Palm vinegar is the next stage again, once the wine has soured, and is a Cambodian kitchen staple.
- Skor tnaot, the palm sugar boiled down from the same sap, is the most important product of the tree and sweetens most Cambodian cooking.
- The sap is served with slices of the translucent jelly-like palm fruit flesh at roadside stalls.
- Related sap drinks are made across South and Southeast Asia from palmyra, nipa, date and coconut palms.
- Some stalls blend the sap with ice into a slush for the hottest part of the day.
History
Sap tapped from sugar palms and drunk fresh or boiled down into palm sugar; the palm is a national symbol of the Cambodian countryside.
Frequently asked questions
What is Teuk Tnaot?
Teuk Tnaot is a drink from Cambodia: fresh sugar-palm sap, drunk sweet or lightly fermented. Sap tapped from sugar palms and drunk fresh or boiled down into palm sugar; the palm is a national symbol of the Cambodian countryside.
How long does Teuk Tnaot take to make?
Teuk Tnaot takes 5 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes, if boiling of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Teuk Tnaot?
Yes, within limits. Boiled sap replaces raw sap for anyone concerned about the Nipah risk, and it keeps three days rather than a few hours. Fresh coconut water is the nearest widely available drink in character, though it is not the same thing and the atlas does not pretend otherwise. Palm sugar dissolved in water with a squeeze of lime approximates the flavour of the boiled drink, and is what a cook outside the region can realistically make. A pinch of salt or a squeeze of lime sharpens the sweetness and is commonly added by vendors. Nipa palm and coconut sap are tapped and drunk the same way in neighbouring countries.
What is the most important thing to get right in Teuk Tnaot?
Pour the strained sap into a very wide shallow pan. Boil it steadily and stir it from time to time. This takes hours rather than minutes.
