Nom Ansom Chek

Medium·30 min

Sticky rice soaked in coconut milk wrapped around a whole banana, rolled tight into a cylinder in banana leaves and steamed or boiled until the rice turns glossy and tender around its sweet, soft core.

Nom ansom chek is the sweet of Cambodian celebration, made in great batches for Khmer New Year and the ancestral festival of Pchum Ben, when families wrap and steam the logs late into the night. Sealed in banana leaves, they keep for days without spoiling, a practical grace that let offerings be carried to the pagoda and shared with the dead and the living alike.

Cut into a round and you find a ring of glossy, faintly salted-sweet coconut rice hugging a warm, jammy banana centre. The leaf lends a green, grassy perfume, and the texture is soft, sticky and gently chewy throughout.

Partly cooking the rice in coconut milk first ensures it sets evenly, since the tight leaf wrap then steams it through without drying. The banana leaf both moulds the log and infuses a grassy aroma, while its moisture keeps the rice from scorching during the long steam.

Variations

With mung beans or black beans added, savoury version with pork belly and mung bean called nom ansom chrouk, sprinkled with toasted sesame

On the Palate

Where Nom Ansom Chek sits in the Cambodian flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

How it's made

8 steps · 30 min

1
120 min
Soak glutinous rice in water for at least two hours, then drain well.
2
15 min
Cook the drained rice gently with coconut milk, sugar and salt until partly absorbed and sticky.
Watch out
Cook the rice in coconut milk only until part-absorbed and sticky, not soft — the leaf-wrapped steam finishes it, and fully-cooked rice now turns mushy later.
3
5 min
Soften banana leaves over a flame or in hot water until pliable.
Watch out
Soften the banana leaves over a flame until they turn glossy and pliable — brittle leaves crack and split when you roll the log.
4
3 min
Lay out a leaf and spread a bed of the coconut rice down the centre.
5
3 min
Place a peeled banana on the rice and wrap the rice fully around it into a log.
6
4 min
Roll the banana leaf tightly around the log and fold and tie both ends to seal.
Watch out
Roll tight and tie both ends firmly — a loose wrap lets water seep in and the rice cooks soggy instead of steaming into a firm log.
7
90 min
Steam or boil the wrapped logs for about one to two hours until the rice is fully cooked.
8
5 min
Cool, then unwrap and slice into rounds to serve.