Ka-Noom Som-Ma-Nus : Thai coconut Meringue

In the last blog I told you about my obsession about cooking.  Since I already made med-kha- noon that uses egg yolk and I have egg whites left over what can I do!!!  Of course Thai people in the past have never thrown anything away and they use it to make this Thai dessert  called “ Ka-noom Som ma nus” it means happy dessert

In the past most of the Thai desserts will have coconut milk, rice and sugar but we don’t use eggs in the ingredients until western cooking came to Thailand around the Ayutthaya period the reign of King Narai (1656-1688).  Marie Guimar, a foreign lady who introduced several exotic desserts to Siam(Thailand’s old name).  She brought several desserts from Portugal with egg and sugar as the main ingredients, and this dessert is one of them.  So this dessert has a very long story and it came from a long time ago and it was hard to find it in the present Thailand and believe it or not  a lot of Thai people don’t know this dessert exists!!!

Ingredients

¼ cup egg white

½ cup sugar

1 tsp. Cream of tartar

1 cup shredded coconut

 1 tsp. cocoa powder

 Cooking instructions

1.       Toast coconut in the oven at 250 F about 30 minutes or until brown.

2.       Spray oil into the baking sheet.

3.       Pour egg white into the mixing add cream of tartar.  Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed till soft peak form (tips curl).  Add sugar, 1 tbsp. at the time, beat about 7 minutes on high speed till stiff peaks form( tips stand straight up)

4.       Add cocoa powder and toast coconut, use spatula and fold until mixed well

5.       Use spoon scoop the meringue out of the bowl and with another spoon scoop out to a plate into a prepared backing sheet.  Make the space about 1 inch.

6.       Bake in a 250 F for 50-60 minutes, turn off the oven and let it sit for hour in the oven

7.       Serve with tea or coffee, leftovers put in to tight container.

I love this dessert!!!