Htoe Mont

Name: Htoe Mont
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Burmese
Ingredients: 600 g Glutinous rice, soaked overnight; 600 ml Coconut milk; 250 g Palm sugar; 1.5 tsp Salt; 150 g Raisins; 150 g Cashew nuts, roasted; 150 g Fresh coconut, shaved into wide strips; 2 tbsp Poppy seeds or sesame, to finish; 80 ml Coconut oil

A dense glutinous rice cake studded with raisins, cashews and coconut shavings, pressed flat and cut into diamonds — Myanmar's celebration cake, given at weddings and novitiations rather than bought for one afternoon.

Source

Recipe by Burmese home kitchens · 🏺 Traditional · Cooking built on three things — a pot of oil-slicked onion and garlic base, fermented fish or shrimp for depth, and a table where everything arrives at once and is shared.

Myanmar · celebration rice cake — An ownerless traditional dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms htoe mont as a traditional Burmese dessert or mont, a glutinous rice cake cooked with raisins, cashews and coconut shavings. The coconut-milk ratio, the 30-minute low-heat stage, the press-twice rule and the timings are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Burmese Treats for Today hps@millionsmemories hps@millionsmemories

⏱ 100 min🍽 12 servings🔥 320 kcal🇲🇲 Myanmar

VegetarianVeganGluten-freeDairy-free

Steps

Steam the drained rice over boiling water for 30 minutes until the grains are soft but still separate.
Melt the palm sugar into the coconut milk with the salt over low heat until it dissolves completely.
Tip the steamed rice into a wide heavy pan, pour the sweetened coconut milk over, and cook on low, stirring and mashing, for 30 minutes.
💡 Thirty minutes on the lowest heat you have. It will look done at ten and be grainy inside — the sugar has to caramelise slowly or the cake tastes raw and never sets firm.
Work in the coconut oil a spoonful at a time until the mass turns glossy and pulls away from the pan.
Fold in the raisins, cashews and most of the coconut shavings.
Press hard into an oiled tray to about 3 cm, scatter the rest of the coconut and the poppy seeds over, and press again.
💡 Press hard, twice. Air pockets are where htoe mont dries out, and a loosely packed cake crumbles at the knife instead of cutting clean.
Cool 3 hours, then cut into diamonds with an oiled knife.

💡 Tips

Htoe mont is the cake at a shinbyu, the ceremony where a boy enters the monastery for a time. It is made in quantity and given away, which is why the recipe scales to twelve without looking odd.
It keeps four days wrapped at room temperature and slices best on day two, when it has firmed but not dried.