Pandan leaf

Feuille de pandan

What it is

The scent is 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, the identical molecule that makes basmati and jasmine rice smell the way they do. This one pandanus almost never flowers and travels only as cuttings, so the fragrant plant in a Bangkok garden and one in Jakarta are divisions of the same stock.

In the kitchen

Bruise the blade with the back of a knife, knot it so you can pull it out whole, and give it fifteen minutes in simmering coconut milk. Longer and the vanilla note flattens into cut grass.

Goes with

Coconut milk Glutinous rice Palm sugar Gula melaka Jasmine rice Mango Lemongrass

Also used with

Black glutinous rice Butterfly pea flower Durian Rice flour Tapioca starch

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