Hi my Foodies! HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thanks to all my 1k+ followers and subscribers this past year. It’s has been a pleasure to share with you all the food I grew up eating. I can’t wait to share more recipes to you all. As a treat to you all, I’ll be sharing my naab vaam recipe.
Naab vaam is a sweetened coconut dessert drink that consist of tapioca pearls, cendol, and other toppings mixed in. Naab vaam is so versatile and can be made in so many different ways. There’s a variety of toppings that can be added in as well. In the Hmong, Thai, Vietnamese, and Malaysian community, you will see a variety of toppings added in such as colored chestnuts, jello, sweet beans, fresh fruit, jackfruit, grass jelly, etc. But this dessert can be seen or made with just the cendol, coconut syrup and ice. With ours, we love the beautiful colored tapioca pearls, cendol, coconut jelly & meat. I also love to add in colored chestnuts but in this case, I’ll just show you the basic. This is definitely a dessert that I will never pass on. It’s always great to try all kinds of version people make and see how they like to make it themselves. That’s the true art of naab vaam.
Again, this is a simple recipe with just the basic components. After you have master it and figured out how you likes yours, you can go crazy with other toppings such as colored chestnuts, other flavored jello, etc.etc. There’s so many toppings! The key to making tasty naab vaam for me is the COCONUT SYRUP! If you don’t have a good coconut syrup recipe, the naab vaam will taste pretty bland. It’s a dessert after all, so make the sweet part sweet and tasty! 🙂 So again, thank you to all who have supported me this past year and ENJOY the recipe! Much love!
Basic Ingredients
Palm sugar, red and yellow food coloring, steam pork rice cake flour for the cendol, tapioca pearls, coconut milk, pandan leaves, & fresh coconut/meat/ jello.
Coloring the tapioca pearls
The coconut syrup
Your favorite toppings
Other toppings you can use includes: jackfruit, pandan jello, colored tapioca water chestnuts, sweetened beans, etc
Coconut jello/gel and fresh coconut with the water and meat
Basil seeds
Blooming the basil seeds in water. SO COOL! Looks like frog eggs. I was scared to eat it when I was little because I actually thought it was frog eggs. But don’t be fooled! These little basil seeds don’t taste much, they just add texture. 
Making the Cendol
Recipe here: https://chawjcreations.com/2019/01/02/cendol-for-naab-vaam/
THE LAYERS
SO COLORFUL!
After mixing, it’s like a work of art in a glass cup
So refreshing, so sweet, so good!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
- -----Coconut Syrup-----
- 2 lb 4oz palm sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 (33.8 oz) coconut milk
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 pandan leaves
- -----Tapioca pearls-----
- 3 quarts water
- 1 (16oz) bag tapioca pearls
- Red and yellow food coloring
- -----Cendol-----
- 1 (12oz) packet steamed pork rice flour cake mix (bot banh gio mix)
- 3 Tbsp tapioca starch
- 3 oz fresh pandan leaf
- 10 cups water (divide into 4 cups & 6 cups)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp pandan flavoring/extract
- ----Other toppings-----
- 1/4 cup basil seeds
- Coconut jelly
- Fresh coconut meat
- Fresh Coconut water (optional)
Instructions
1) COCONUT SYRUP
Place the palm sugar in a pot with 1 cup of water. Melt the sugar on low heat until fully dissolve. Then add in the coconut milk, pandan leaves, and salt. Stir and let it simmer (but not to a boil) for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let it cool in the fridge overnight or until fully cooled.
2) COOKING THE TAPIOCA PEARLS
In a pot, add in 3 quarts of water. Let it come to a boil. Then add in the tapioca pearls and stir. Stir and boil for 5 minutes. Then turn off heat, cover the pot with a lid and let it sit in the hot water for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes the pearl will double in size and become clear. Strain and rinse the pearls with cold water. Separate the pearls into two batches. Color one batch red and the other yellow. Set aside.
3) MAKING THE CENDOL
Chop the pandan leaves into 1 inch pieces. Place it in the blender with 4 cups of water. Blend until the pandan are well chopped and the water is a nice green color. Grab your cooking pot and place a strainer and then a fine cloth or a cheese cloth over the strainer. Strain it well and press all the liquid out. Discard the pandan pulp.
Finish adding in the addition 6 cups of water into the pandan water. Then add in the packet of flour mix, 3 Tbsp of tapioca starch, and salt. Mix well.
Cook the mixture over medium high heat until it becomes thick. STIR CONSTANTLY to prevent lumps from forming and to prevent the starches from burning at the bottom. Stir and cook for about 10-15 minutes. Once it becomes thick and unison, cook it for another 5 minutes. Once the batter creates a nice ribbon consistency and is shiny, take it off the heat.
Get your bucket of ice water and cendol press ready. Grab another person to help you and place the cendol press over the ice water and then fill your cendol press with the batter. The batter will fall easily into the water without you having to press it. This is a good sign you did the batter right. The strands should be about 2- 2 1/2 inches long. Finish using all the batter. FULL RECIPE, VIDEO, AND DETAILS HERE http://chawjcreations.com/2019/01/02/cendol-for-naab-vaam/
4) OTHER TOPPINGS
Basil seeds: Add 1/4 cup basil seed to a bowl. Add in cold water just to cover. Let it bloom (takes about 2-4 minutes). Strain excess water and use as desire.
Coconut meat/water: Cut open a fresh coconut. Keep the water and scrape off the coconut meat. Cut the meat into bite size pieces and top naab vaam with it.
5) ASSEMBLE
In a cup, add equal part tapioca pearls and cendol. Add in basil seeds and the toppings. Then add in the coconut syrup to your liking. Mix. Taste and adjust. Add in ice if you want it colder.
You can also mix everything in a big bowl or container if you plan on bringing it to a big party or have them self serve themselves.
Notes
Coconut water is used if you want your naab vaam to be a little thiner and not so thick. Add a little to lighten the thickness from all the starches and coconut milk. Add other toppings if desire. ADD ICE to make it cold and refreshing. Color the tapioca pearls any color you want.
12 comments
I’d-love to eat naab vaam, its easy.to make but my problem I dont know where can.I buy the ingredients of celdon .
Depending where you live, you can check your local Asian Grocery store to see if they have the items. 🙂
Girl you need to have your own cook book 👩🍳📚.. (๑`✪̤◡✪̤)◞ღԵՀⱭՂƘՏღ
Thank you for all your videos. It’s always good to know and keep hmong cooking as a traditional thing for our children! Keep them videos coming! I always enjoy it!???❤❤????
Tapioca is my downfall. I haven’t tried to make this recipe yet because I don’t feel confident and not sure if I can access all the ingredients. I must say that is such a pretty pudding…?
Your ingredient list the palm sugar as 2 lbs and 4 oz. Is that correct?
That’s correct. I usually make it sweeter since most of my family member likes to add ice at the end which usually dilutes the naab vaam.
How do you get the color dye to not transfer???
My color dye never sticks on the pearls.
And it always transfer and dye the whole drink….
Am i not letting the dye sit long enough? Or not enough rinsing??
I like to rinse mine until the water becomes less red. But it will transfer through time.
Hi! What do you mean about the coconut syrup being fully cooked? How do you know it’s fully cooked?
When you don’t feel any sugar crystals on the bottom anymore. The coconut milk also becomes a little thinner since the fats are heated.
I see! Thanks Cindy! 😊❤️