Dish
Num Ansom Chek
នំអន្សមចេក
Cylindrical Khmer sticky rice cake filled with banana and steamed in banana leaf for festivals and weddings.
Num Ansom Chek (នំអន្សមចេក) is a cylindrical Khmer sticky rice cake filled with banana and steamed in banana leaf for festivals and weddings.[1] In the name, num means rice cake and chek means banana.[2] In English it is called banana sticky rice cake or rolled banana rice cake.[3][4]
Cultural context
Num ansom chek is the banana-filled kind of num ansom, a traditional Khmer cake of glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves and filled with sugar bananas. It can be steamed, fried or grilled, depending on the occasion.[1] It is traditionally eaten at Pchum Ben and Cambodian New Year. At Pchum Ben, sticky rice cakes are offered to the ancestors to gain their blessing for the rice fields.[1] At festivals the cakes may be offered to monks at the temple and to departed ancestors, relatives and friends.[4] They are also made for religious ceremonies and weddings.[5] Num ansom and the pyramid-shaped num kom are regarded as essential parts of the traditional Khmer wedding.[1]
In Khmer tradition, the cylinder of the num ansom represents a phallus and stands for Shiva, the masculine principle, while the pyramid of the num kom stands for Uma, his consort. In popular Khmer culture the two cakes represent the two heads of the household.[1] At weddings the cake is served as a symbol of fertility.[6] My Siem Reap Tours links the cylinder to long life, the banana leaves to the gifts of nature and the sticky rice to the bonds of family and community.[3] Bananas appear in many Cambodian snacks because they grow in abundance and have ritual value.[4]
The cake is eaten all year but is most common at festivals and celebrations.[3] In Siem Reap it is sold in local markets, especially around traditional holidays, and some restaurants serve it as a Khmer dessert.[3] It is also sold at street food stalls and as a street snack throughout Cambodia.[5][4] Families and neighbors often make large batches together for celebrations, and wrapping the cakes is a valued skill passed down through generations.[3] In Phnom Penh, num ansom chek is one of the popular cakes of the Khmer cake business Neal, in Russey Keo district.[7]
In a village in northern Cambodia, Hong Khoeun started a bakery with a grant of 35 dollars from Church World Service. She makes the cakes from local ingredients and flour that her husband mills, and the bakery pays for her daughter's schooling and the family's food.[8]
At the Angkor Sankranta event in Siem Reap in April 2015, about 100 Khmer chefs spent almost two days making a sticky rice cake that weighed 4,040 kilograms (about 8,900 pounds). Guinness World Records approved it as the largest sticky rice cake on April 13, 2015.[1]
Ingredients and preparation
The cake is made of glutinous rice sweetened with coconut cream or coconut milk around a core of ripe banana. The rice is soaked so it cooks into a tender, sticky cake, and the banana leaf shapes the parcel and adds a grassy scent.[9] A sweet version often combines sticky rice with banana, grated coconut, palm sugar syrup and a little salt.[5]
In the Tour Cambodia recipe, the rice is soaked for at least three hours, ideally overnight, then rinsed and drained. It is mixed with salt, palm sugar and grated coconut and rests for about 15 minutes to take in the flavors.[5] The banana leaves are set briefly in the sun, cleaned and cut into pieces about 15 by 20 centimeters (6 by 8 inches). Each leaf is laid shiny side down and topped with rice and a piece of banana or half a banana. The leaves are folded into cylinders, tied with string or held with toothpicks, and steamed for an hour.[5] The My Siem Reap Tours version mixes the rice with coconut milk, sugar and salt and passes the leaves over a flame to soften them.[3] The cakes are served warm or at room temperature, and the leaf is usually opened just before eating so its scent can be enjoyed. Some serve them with coconut milk or grated coconut.[3]
The Church World Service village recipe mixes rice soaked overnight with grated coconut and salts the halved bananas.[8] A rectangular banana leaf is laid over a larger square one, and a line of rice and banana is covered with more rice. The leaves are folded into a tube, closed at both ends and tied tight at four evenly spaced points.[8] The cake steams for 30 to 45 minutes with the lid closed and is cut into slices about one inch (2.5 centimeters) thick.[8] Because it is wrapped and steamed in banana leaves, the cake keeps for several days.[4]
Related cakes
The name is also written num ansorm and ansom.[1] Other spellings include ansom chek, nom an-sorm cheik, num anksom, num onsorm, nom onsam, nom ahnsahm, num ornsom and num ânsâm.[2] The num ansom family includes a jackfruit-filled cake, num ansom khnao (នំអន្សមខ្នុរ), and a pork-filled cake, num ansom chrouk (នំអន្សមជ្រូក).[1][5] A sweet mung bean version is num ansom snaul pa-em, and the grilled banana version is num ansom chek ang.[2]
Num kom, a related Khmer dumpling, is made of sticky rice flour with coconut meat and palm sugar, sometimes with peanuts or sesame, folded into triangular banana-leaf parcels. Num bort is a flat, rectangular steamed dumpling with a mung bean and coconut filling. Kralan is packed into a bamboo tube and roasted, with sticky rice, beans, sugar, grated coconut and coconut milk.[2]
Similar banana-leaf parcels of coconut sticky rice are made across Cambodia, Laos and neighboring regions, among them khao tom in Laos and the Vietnamese bánh tét. Thai mango sticky rice is a related but different dish that uses fresh mango instead of wrapped banana.[9]
Regional and household variations
Some regions add black beans or mung beans to the filling, and some areas make a savory version with pork and mung beans.[3] Other recipes add jackfruit, mango strips, red mung beans or black beans, sweetened with palm sugar.[4] The CookedEarth version adds red azuki beans, soaked overnight with the rice, and boils or steams large rolls for two to six hours. The beans turn soft and rich and balance the palm sugar.[6]
In Siem Reap, chefs make fusion fillings such as chocolate or durian. Health-minded cooks use brown glutinous rice and less sugar.[3] Parchment paper can replace banana leaves, though the flavor changes.[3][8]
Preparations and recipes
- My Siem Reap Tours
- Glutinous rice seasoned with coconut milk, wrapped around whole bananas in banana leaf and steamed into cylindrical cakes.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Wikipedia: Num ansom
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Tamale Digest, Cambodia (2014-08-28)
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 My Siem Reap Tours, Num Ansom Chek: The Traditional Cambodian Banana Sticky Rice Cake (2024-08-22)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 AMCARMEN'S KITCHEN, Num Ansom Chek (Rolled Banana Rice Cake) (2021-02-24)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Tour Cambodia, Num ansom chek: the authentic recipe for the Cambodian banana rice cake (2025-03-29)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 CookedEarth, Kingdom of Cambodia (2013-03-21)
- ↑ Phnom Penh Post, Traditional cakes capture capital hearts (2025-02-14)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Church World Service, Khoeun's Sticky Rice Cakes with Banana Filling
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Taste Lab, Banana Coconut Sticky Rice (Num Ansom Chek)