Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel
Palm & Coconut
Sugar
Nahm dtahn bpeep/buk & nahm dtahn maprao
by Kasma Loha-unchit
Text Copyright © 1995 & 2000 Kasma
Loha-unchit.
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See below for Recipes with Palm Sugar
Palm sugar and coconut
sugars (nahm dtahn bpeep/buk & nahm dtahn maprao): Although the names
are used interchangeably, palm sugar and coconut sugar are not the same. One comes from the
palmyra or sugar palm and the other from coconut palm, but both are produced from the sweet,
watery sap that drips from cut flower buds. The sap is collected each morning and boiled in
huge woks on the plantations until a sticky sugar remains. This is whipped and dropped in lumps
on cellophane, or filled into containers. Because it is not highly processed like brown sugar,
the color, consistency, flavor and level of sweetness can vary from batch to batch, even within
the same brand.
The color can be as light as creamy beige and as dark as rich caramel brown, and the consistency soft and gooey, or rock hard, depending on how long the sap was reduced. Palm sugar usually has a darker color, a more fragrant smoky aroma and a more complex flavor than coconut sugar, though sometimes additives have been mixed in to lighten its color. Palm sugar may also be labeled as coconut sugar and vice versa. So it is best to buy your sugar by sight and feel (squeeze the plastic container to ascertain its consistency) than by its label. If you have a choice, select a soft, rich brown sugar; if not, any kind is better than none.
A 
soft sugar makes it easier to spoon out and use, but more often than not,
coconut and palm sugars come in hard, crystallized chunks which keep better. If so, it is best
to cut and peel back the plastic container, place the lump in a bag and hammer it into small
crystals for ease of usage. Some people add water and melt the sugar in the microwave; however,
this often increases the likelihood of spoilage, reducing its otherwise indefinite shelf life.
Neither coconut nor palm sugar needs to be refrigerated, but if it is soft and moist, take care
to keep it away from heat and exposure to air which may encourage mold growth. If mold begins
to appear on the sugar, remove the top half to one inch; the remainder of the dense sugar may
still be fine.
In Asian markets, palm and coconut sugars are available in plastic containers or plastic bags of various sizes and also in tin cans. Although they are used primarily for making sweets and desserts, their creamy, caramel-like sweetness also enhances the flavor of curries and rich sauces for savory dishes. Since the degree of sweetness may vary from batch to batch, add enough "to taste." Substitute with brown sugar only if you absolutely cannot find either. For sweetening light dishes, granulated sugar is preferred over palm or coconut sugar.
Text Copyright © 2000 Kasma Loha-unchit in Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood. See pages 65 & 66.
This is just one of many listings in the "Alphabetical List of Ingredients" in chapter four (pages 49 to 73) of Dancing Shrimp: Favorite Thai Recipes for Seafood.
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Coconut and Palm Sugars (nahm dtahn bpeep/buk & nahm dtahn maprao): Near the bustling Damnoen Saduak floating market in Rajburi province southwest of Bangkok, there is a small coconut sugar plantation run by an energetic old man. He is visited daily by Thai and foreign tourists who hire paddle boats to tour the quiet country canals. Very early every morning, he climbs the many coconut trees on his plantation to make cuts in the flower buds, under which he straps cylindrical plastic containers to catch the sweet nectar dripping from the cuts. A couple of hours later, he returns and climbs the trees again with great agility to collect the filled containers.
The
lightly cloudy fluid is poured into huge woks over an old earthen stove at the edge of the
nearby canal. A helper gathers dried coconut husks and leaf ribs for fuel and builds a fire to
boil the watery fluid down to a thick, concentrated syrup. Attracted by the fragrance and
sweetness of the nectar, honey bees swarm around the woks, dozens giving in to a sweet death in
the hot syrup. They are skimmed off before the gooey sugar is whipped to a smooth, creamy
texture with a beater attached to a long wooden stick. The light brown coconut sugar is then
dropped onto wax paper in small lumps, or spooned onto shallow round molds, and left to set and
harden. They are then packaged in plastic bags for sale to Thai tourists and merchants who drop
by to visit. This activity takes place every day along the canal; each year I have stopped by
the plantation with my groups of American travelers, and the old man has always been there. If
he is not atop a tree somewhere, he cheerfully greets us with glasses filled with warm coconut
nectar.
In a similar manner, palm sugar is tapped from palmyra or lontar palm trees, commonly known as sugar palm. These tall palm trees have very large leaves that are fan-shaped, extending outward into split leaflets. Driving through the Thai countryside, you will see plenty of these trees growing amidst rice fields and in thicker groves down the southern peninsula. With their rounded heads, they always seem to me like the faces of people, and as their trunks sway and leaves move about in the gentle breeze, they seem to be nodding and waving to everyone passing by. They make me smile and silently reply with a "hello" in my heart.
Roadside stalls along the highway passing by the peninsula town of Petchburi sell bottles of tan-colored, fresh sugar palm nectar (which Thais call "fresh palm water" [näm dtahn sod]) along with bags of the mild-tasting, gelatinous young fruits. Fresh palm nectar is a delicious aromatic drink with a distinctly smoky flavor. More flavorful than the lighter-colored coconut nectar, it usually makes a better-tasting, more caramel-flavored sugar than coconut sugar.
In cooking, coconut sugar and palm sugar can be used interchangeably (brown sugar is a poor substitute for either one). Often, you won't have much choice in the small Southeast Asian market near you. The sugars come in glass jars as well as plastic containers, small and large. Usually they are in crystallized form, but if you are lucky, you may find batches that are soft, gooey and easy to spoon out. When I buy palm sugar, I squeeze the plastic containers on the shelf to find one that feels soft. Sometimes, in the same shipment, some containers hold hardened sugar while others may still be moist. That's because palm sugar is not a highly processed sugar, and much of its production is still a cottage industry. Some wokfuls of palm nectar are boiled down more than others before being filled into containers. When cooled, it crystallizes into a block.
The hardened sugar requires scraping with a spoon or a hand-held coconut shredder with sharp teeth. My students tell me placing the whole container into the microwave oven for a brief time helps soften the sugar. I am beginning to see some stores carry hardened palm sugar in round blocks, packaged in cellophane rather than in plastic containers or glass jars. Cutting these blocks down with a knife into chunks is easier than trying to scrape hardened sugar from jars. Palm sugar is also available in tin cans in a more syrupy form. It is quite good, better than crystallized coconut sugar, though some people think it has a tinny taste.
The color of both coconut and palm sugar can vary a bit from batch to batch. Sometimes they are a light cream color; at other times, a rich mocha. Degree of sweetness, too, can vary; therefore, use your taste buds to guide you in determining how much to use in the recipes. I generally find the darker, stickier palm sugar to be richer and more flavorful. The difference in coloration, sweetness and flavor, again, reflects the fact that these natural sugars are not highly processed like brown sugar, which always seems to be uniform in color and sweetness from box to box. Much depend on the type of palm trees, time of year when the sugar is tapped and, to some degree, the heat and fuel source used to reduce the nectar.
Coconut and palm sugars keep well when stored in a cool dry place and do not need to be refrigerated. They are great sweeteners, balancing agents and flavor enhancers for curries and robust sauces. Many coconut desserts are accentuated by their rich, caramel taste and distinctive aroma.
Text Copyright © 1995 Kasma Loha-unchit in It Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and the Joys of Thai Cooking. See pages 61 to 63.
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Recipes with Palm Sugar:
Appetizers
Tasty Leaf-wrapped Tidbits (Miang Kam)
Soups
Coconut Seafood Soup with Galanga (Dtom Kah Talay)
Salads
Green Papaya Salad (Som Dtam)
Curries
Roast Duck and "Pumpkin" Curry (Gkaeng Ped Bped)
Easy Green Curry with Pork (Gkaeng Kiow Wahn Moo)
Green Curry with Fish/Shrimp Dumplings (Gkaeng Kiow Wahn Loogchin Bplah/Gkoong)
Chicken and Roasted Eggplant in Red Curry Sauce (Gkaeng Ped Gkai)
Noodle Dishes
Stewed Beef Noodle Soup (Gkuay Dtiow Neau Nahm Khon)
Desserts
Coconut Egg Custard (Sangkaya)
Coconut-Flavored Sticky Rice with Mangoes (Kao Niow Ma-muang)
Black Sticky Rice Pudding (Kao Niow Dahm)
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Text Copyright © Kasma Loha-unchit, 1995 in It Rains Fishes, and 2000 in Dancing Shrimp. All rights reserved.
Watercolor Copyright © 1995 Toby Goodenough.. All rights reserved.
All material on this website is Copyright © 1995 to 2008 Kasma Loha-unchit. All rights reserved.
For comments, feedback or questions, contact Kasma.
Last updated 15 April 2003.