Bajigur: Sundanese Hot Coconut Drink

Ingredients

• 500 ml coconut milk
• 60 g palm sugar, grated or roughly chopped
• 30 g fresh ginger, peeled and bruised
• 2 pandan leaves, tied in a knot
• 1 pinch fine salt

Method

1. 1
   Combine the coconut milk, grated palm sugar, bruised ginger, knotted pandan leaves, and salt in a saucepan over a low flame. Stir steadily as the liquid warms; the sugar is dissolved when no granules remain visible and the liquid runs an even caramel brown.
2. 2
   Continue to heat, stirring without pause, until the drink steams freely and a faint simmer begins to form at the edge of the pan. This is where the dish lives or dies: the coconut milk must never reach a rolling boil or it will break and the richness that defines bajigur will be lost — remove from the heat the instant a full simmer threatens.
3. 3
   Remove the ginger and pandan leaves. Ladle into warmed cups. The drink is ready when it coats the ladle lightly and carries the scent of pandan above the ginger warmth.