You know that feeling when you think you are one of the luckiest girls in the world? Well that’s exactly how I felt during our stay at the Four Seasons Tented Camp.
I wasn’t sure what to think of the specially themed dinners that were planned out in our personalized itinerary. I really had no idea what to expect…but the manager Vikas and Chef Pisan assured us that our dinners would be spectacular, which I found out later to be exactly that. Amazingly spectacular!
After drinks and personalized vegetarian appetizers at the Burma Bar…we were escorted by a ranger through the exotic bamboo jungle by torch into the elephant camp where we were immediately greeted by our elephants Yuki and Pet… feeding them a dinner of sugarcane before the ranger lead us to our dinner. Spending time with our elephants at night was very intimate and just the beginning of many extraordinary touches to come…
We were seated up on a platform overlooking the stars and sky and the table was lit only by candle light (Thank goodness for flash photography). Down below local artists using traditional northern Thailand instruments serenaded us. There was an outdoor kitchen where the chef’s crew was busy preparing our multi-course meal. 4 courses in all. Everything was incredible… soup, rice noodles, fish cooked over the fire in a banana leaf stuffed into bamboo served with plenty of delicious vegetables from their own organic garden and steamed brown rice…
For dessert, I was really blown away. So blown away, in fact, immediately after taking one bite I knew I had to make this back home and share the recipe with all of you!
A traditional Thai dessert was served – Sweet Banana in Coconut Milk. The dessert was so simple, so comforting and so good. We enjoyed it by the fire the Four Seasons staff had ready for us to enjoy after dinner. We sipped wine, had ginger tea and enjoyed the view of the stars we normally don’t get to see living in the city lights back home.
To make this dessert exactly like the chef prepared it requires the exotic pandanus leaf, which is abundant in Thailand and found all over the camp (in hindsight I should have stuffed some of these leaves in my pocket to take home!) I haven’t been able to find fresh pandandus leaf in the U.S. yet, so I used ground cardamon seeds instead, which is one of my favorite indian spices for adding fragrance and sweet aroma. I imagine this is what the Thai leaf did too. Cardamon worked so well that it tasted like I wasn’t missing any key ingredients at all.
Here’s my take on the recipe, along with instructions on how to make your own coconut milk too! Making your own coconut milk is super easy. Can I get an applause for avoiding that dreaded carrageenan?
- 16 ounces of coconut milk
- 2 large bananas sliced ¾ inch thick
- ½ tsp ground cardamon seeds or 1 pandanus leaf
- ⅓ cup coconut palm sugar or less if you have ripe bananas
- ⅛ tsp sea salt
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds toasted
- In a large pot, combine coconut milk, sugar and cardamon/pandanus leaf and bring to a boil until sugar dissolves (Note – the cardamon or pandanus leaf will not dissolve)
- Stir well, reduce heat and add banana, cooking for 7 more minutes or until you see the banana turn golden yellow
- If using pandanus leaf, remove it and serve pieces of banana covered with ½ cup of coconut milk in a small dish
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds
- The water & meat of one large mature coconut (alternatively, you can 1 and ½ cup dried unsweetened coconut)
- 2 and ½ cups warm filtered water
- In a high speed blender, combine coconut water, meat and filtered water and blend until smooth
- Using a strainer or nut milk bag, separate the pulp from the milk (Note – Don’t throw away the pulp, I’ll be sharing a recipe on how to use it soon)
After dessert, the surprises kept coming… out came several “Kongming” paper lanterns for us to launch into the sky, creating our own stars to wish upon. The sight was truly magical and we watched our lanterns for a very long time… symbolizing good luck and our worries to disappear.
And to add even more romance to the night…This is what we arrived back to in our tent. “Wow!” was all I could say!
Thank you Four Seasons Tented Camp and Chef Pisan for this delicious recipe and a spectacular night we will never forget.
XOXO,
Food Babe
Haha the dog at the airport would have tackled you for sure if you stuffed those in your pocket!! Thank you so much for posting this recipe…anything to remind me of the wonderful food in Thailand
You know what? I found a banana from our resort in Borneo in my bag later… LOL. Surprised they didn’t search me more thoroughly after the dog attacked me at baggage claim!
Bullhooks (the instrument the man is holding in the second picture) are incredibly cruel. I hope the elephants were treated more humanely than it looks.
On a positive note, this recipe looks amazing and I look forward to trying it sometime next week.
Hi Chelsea! As you might know, elephants can be extremely dangerous to humans and kill more people than any other animal each year… with that being said, I never saw any of the mahouts (trainer) ever use their taming device during the 5 days we stayed at the camp. They have to carry these tools for precaution to protect us…
The camp is the founding member of the The Golden Triangle Asian Elephant Foundation and was built in order to find a refuge for elephants rescued from the streets of Thailand and who were found in terrible condition. The funds generated at the resort support the cost to feed the elephants, the mahouts and maintain the camp grounds for them to live peacefully.
I am such an animal lover – there is no way I could support an operation that is being cruel to any animal for entertainment purposes!
Ahhhh I didn’t know that about it starting as a refuge, but I’m very glad to hear it! I’m also glad to know that as an animal lover you wouldn’t support an operation that was cruel! (I’m with you on that one.)
I’d like to say that I really enjoy your blog. I found it after moving to Charlotte in September of last year. It was a little overwhelming here at first (moving here after living in Boone for 4 years while I was in school). As a vegan I often appreciate a lot of your restaurant recommendations. Uhhh, the Skinny Witch/Wich (can’t remember how they spell it) at Luna’s is so good. I doubt I would have tried it if I hadn’t seen a picture of it on here. I probably still wouldn’t know what Berrybrook Farms was either, even though I drove past it regularly. Now when I’m not in the mood to make some green juice for myself I run there and pick one up instead.
So, thanks for making the transition here a little easier!
That’s good to hear. I was worried, too, since elephants are often so mistreated. It’s great that they are helping them!
Your stay looks absolutely magical – thank you for sharing! And I must try this rendition of yours, I adore Thai food and anything with coconut involved. I must visit Thailand one day!
Food Babe to the rescue! I will definitely be making my own coconut milk from here on out. Thanks for sharing. What an amazing trip!
Just got my vitamix and bought a coconut from HHM this weekend after reading about the yucks in store bought coconut milk! Thanks much for posting the recipe –I was just in search of one!
May I ask what the reasoning is for the coconut palm sugar rather than organic sugar or sucanat or something else? Thanks.
I used a vitamix and blended on high.. I didn’t have any pulp left??? is that bad???
Yikes… so there was zero pulp? even when you strained it? Did you use a mature coconut or a young coconut? If you used a mature coconut, maybe try blending it less time – only 30secs to a 1min. I don’t have a vitamix, so not exactly sure how to time the blending for you.