Snack
Grilled pressed bananas (Kluai thap)
Hak Muk bananas grilled until toasty, pressed flat and drenched in sticky coconut-palm-sugar sauce. Street-cart joy, made at home.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 35 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Easy
Fruit to use
Just-turning Hak Muk bananas: skin yellow with some green left, flesh still firm
About this dish
Kluai thap is a Thai street-cart snack; "thap" means to press flat. Vendors often use firm Namwa bananas, but dense Hak Muk bananas grill and press just as deliciously.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Just-ripe Hak Muk bananas
8 · a firm Thai cooking banana; firm, just-ripe Namwa or saba bananas also work
Coconut sauce
Coconut milk
250 ml (1 cup)
Palm sugar or coconut sugar
100 g (about 6 tbsp) · soft, caramel-tasting sugar; chop before measuring, or use light brown sugar
Fine salt
½ tsp
Pandan leaves
2 · tied in a knot; optional
Method
Put the coconut milk, palm sugar, salt and pandan in a small pot over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Turn the heat to low and simmer for 10–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until slightly thickened. Remove the pandan.
While the sauce simmers, peel the bananas. If the skins are stubborn, score them lengthwise with a knife first.
Grill the bananas over low-to-medium charcoal, turning often, for 15–20 minutes, until golden with charred spots and soft all the way through.
Using an air fryer instead? Cook at 160 °C for 20–25 minutes, turning halfway.
While they're hot, put the bananas between banana leaves or baking paper and press them flat with a board or the bottom of a heavy mortar, to about 1 cm thick.
Grill for another 1–2 minutes per side for extra toasty edges (optional).
Cut into bite-size pieces, pour over the warm coconut sauce and serve.
Tips
- Firm, just-ripe bananas grill up chewy and press neatly. Very ripe ones turn mushy and stick to the board.
- Press while the bananas are hot. Once they cool, they crack instead of flattening.
- No charcoal grill? A dry cast-iron or non-stick pan over low heat works too. Just keep turning.
- The sauce thickens as it cools. It keeps in the fridge for 3–4 days; warm it before pouring.