Num Ansom Chek — Banana Sticky-Rice Cake
នំអន្សមចេក
The banana log of Khmer New Year and Pchum Ben: sticky rice and coconut wrapped around ripe banana in banana leaf, bound and boiled for hours until set.
By Cambodian Cookbook Kitchen · June 2, 2026
សៀមរាប Siem Reap & AngkorRecovery era, 1979–1993
- Prep
- 60 min
- Cook
- 240 min
- Serves
- 8
- Level
- Advanced
Num ansom chek is festival food, and in Cambodia festival food carries weight beyond the plate. A log of glutinous rice and coconut wrapped around ripe banana, bound in banana leaf and boiled through the night, it is made for Khmer New Year and for Pchum Ben, the fifteen-day rite when families feed their ancestors. That it survives at all is its own quiet history: in the recovery years after 1979, as markets reopened stall by stall and grandmothers taught from memory, the festival cakes came back among the first things, because a people rebuilding also rebuilds its calendar. To boil ansom again was to say the year still turned. The dish is humble — rice, banana, coconut, salt — and precisely because of that it means everything.
The technique is all in the wrapping, and it is genuinely hard the first time. The rice must be firmly packed and fully enclosed, the leaf folded snug, the parcel tied tight at several points, because over three or four hours of boiling any slackness lets water in and the whole thing slumps to porridge. Do it right and you unwrap a dense, translucent, sliceable log, the banana gone soft and jammy at its heart, the rice glossed with coconut and just barely sweet. It is meant to be made in company — a table of aunties folding and tying while the pot mutters all night — and it tastes, unmistakably, of a house that kept its holidays. Slice it thick and eat it cool.
The bind is the whole skill. Wrap tight and tie tighter — a loose ansom takes on water and turns to porridge. If it feels too firm to be kind, it is nearly right.
ពាក្យពីចុងភៅ · A word from the kitchen
Ingredientsគ្រឿងផ្សំ
Serves 8
០ of ៩ gathered
The rice
The filling
To wrap and tie
Methodវិធីធ្វើ
Step 1: Season the rice
Toss the drained glutinous rice with the coconut cream, salt, and sugar and let it sit thirty minutes so the grains drink the coconut. It should look wet and glossy but not soupy; the rice will swell greatly as it cooks.
Step 2: Build each parcel
Overlap two banana leaves shiny-side in. Lay down a bed of rice, press a banana half into the centre, and cover with more rice so the fruit is fully enclosed. Aim for a firm log about the length of your hand.
Step 3: Fold and bind tight
Fold the leaf into a tight rectangular log, tuck the ends, and tie firmly at intervals with fibre string. This is the entire skill of ansom: a slack parcel floods and turns to gruel. Wrap tight, tie tighter.
Step 4: Boil long and low
Submerge the parcels in boiling water and cook at a steady low boil for three to four hours, topping up with hot water so they stay covered. Lift one out, let it cool, and unwrap: the rice should be translucent, dense, and sliceable.
ឧបករណ៍ · The tools
Equipment
Tiered steamer
សម្ភារៈចំហុយStacked tiers for amok cups, steamed cakes, and fish — gentle, even heat that sets custards without breaking them. A wide pot with a rack stands in.
Shop on Amazon →Sticky-rice basket
ចង្អេរThe cone-shaped bamboo basket that steams soaked glutinous rice into fluffy, separate grains — the way sticky rice is meant to be cooked, not boiled.
Shop on Amazon →
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Questions from the kitchen
Why does mine come out mushy and waterlogged?
The wrap was too loose. Water works into a slack parcel over four hours of boiling and turns the rice to porridge. Pack the rice firmly, fold the leaf snug, and tie at several points along the log. A tight ansom is a dense, sliceable one.
Can I steam instead of boil?
You can, and it lowers the flood risk, but boiling is traditional and gives the characteristic dense, glassy set. If you steam, go three hours and keep the water high. Either way, patience is the recipe — this is not a quick sweet.
What occasions is this for?
Num ansom chek belongs to Khmer New Year and to Pchum Ben, the festival of the ancestors, when families boil them by the dozen through the night. Making them is a group effort by design — the wrapping goes faster and the vigil is warmer with company.
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