Khao Lam — Bamboo Grilled Sticky Rice / ข้าวหลาม

Ingredients

• 400 g glutinous (sticky) rice, soaked overnight in cold water, drained
• 250 ml coconut cream
• 80 g palm sugar, shaved or grated
• 100 g black beans, cooked until just tender; or substitute taro, cut into small dice
• 4 sections fresh green bamboo, Dendrocalamus or Phyllostachys species preferred; each section sealed at one node, open at top, approximately 30–35 cm long and 5–6 cm internal diameter

Method

1. 1
   Combine the drained soaked glutinous rice, coconut cream, palm sugar, and black beans in a bowl, stirring until the palm sugar is fully dissolved into the coconut cream and the mixture is uniformly coated. Dissolving the sugar at this stage, rather than relying on heat later, ensures every grain and bean is evenly sweetened before it enters the bamboo. The mixture should be cohesive but not soupy.
2. 2
   Pack the rice mixture into each fresh green bamboo section, filling to no more than three-quarters of the section's capacity, so the rice has room to swell toward the open end rather than forcing a split in the cane wall. Plug the open end loosely with a folded banana leaf or a palm leaf if available, to retain moisture without sealing pressure — a tight seal would trap steam that has nowhere to go and could blow the plug.
3. 3
   Prepare a medium charcoal fire with coals that are glowing and covered with white ash, not flaming, so the bamboo wall conducts heat gently inward while the sealed moisture steams the rice through over the full cooking period — flame-high heat would char the bamboo shell to ash before the centre rice is cooked. Lay the bamboo sections over the coals, or prop them at an angle above the heat source, and rotate frequently and continuously to distribute heat evenly across the entire circumference of each section.
4. 4
   Roast, rotating throughout, until the exterior of every bamboo section is completely and uniformly charred — the outer skin blackens, blisters, and no green remains visible. Follow your nose as well as your eyes: when the green-bamboo steam-note venting from the open end shifts from raw and grassy to toasty-sweet, the moisture inside has done its work and the rice within is approaching readiness.
5. 5
   Test doneness by inserting a thin metal skewer through the bamboo wall into the centre of the rice column, because the exterior can look and smell finished while the innermost rice is still hard and starchy. The skewer should meet no resistance and withdraw clean with no wet, starchy grain adhering to it; if any resistance or wet starch remains, return the sections to the heat and continue rotating.
6. 6
   Remove from the heat and split the charred bamboo lengthways with a cleaver or heavy knife, or peel the outer sheath away in strips, to expose the intact cylindrical column of cooked rice. The surface of the rice column should carry a faint green-bamboo impression and a light gloss from the coconut cream. Taste: the flavour should be distinctly coconut-sweet with the subtle grassy, green-tea-like note imparted by the bamboo wall.