Recipe
Num Kroch (recipe)
Glutinous rice dough wrapped around sweetened mung bean paste, rolled in sesame seeds and deep-fried until crisp.
This recipe for num kroch, fried sesame balls filled with mung beans, is by Sabrina of 196 Flavors.[1] The name means "orange cake" for the round shape; the balls contain no orange.[2][3] Num kroch has a crisp shell, a soft and slightly chewy inside and a mildly sweet filling.[1]
Cambodian cooks fill the balls with mung beans, while Chinese versions may use lotus paste, black beans, red beans or black sesame. The dough may mix glutinous rice flour with ordinary rice flour. The published ingredient list gives 8 teaspoons of sugar, divided, while its method adds 6 tablespoons to the filling and 2 tablespoons to the dough. The oil is kept near 140 °C (280 °F) so the balls do not burst. They are best eaten at once but keep for one or two days.[1]
Ingredients
- 1 cup glutinous rice flour
- 0.25 cup rice flour
- 1 cup lukewarm water, or more as needed
- 1 tsp salt
- 8 tsp sugar, divided
- 1 cup mung beans, split or whole
- 4 tbsp white sesame seeds
- Vegetable oil, for frying
Method
- Soak the mung beans about five hours, then drain them.
- Steam the beans 40 minutes or longer until tender, then mash them.
- Sweeten the mash with most of the sugar plus the salt and roll it into small balls of 1 to 2 centimeters (1/2 to 1 inch).
- Combine the two flours with the remaining sugar and add warm water gradually.
- Knead about three minutes, cover and rest the dough ten minutes.
- Divide the dough, roll each piece into a ball and flatten it into a disc.
- Enclose a bean ball in each disc and smooth it back into a ball.
- Roll the balls generously in sesame seeds.
- Fry in oil at about 140 °C (280 °F) until golden and crisp, then drain and serve.