Food Feature: Nam Wan Sauce, Part 2

(*There are many different versions of Nam Wan sauce. This version is the way I was taught by my mom. There are plenty of ways to cook/mix the sauce... this is just one of them.)

Nam Wan sauce is super simple as well. It only consists of two ingredients: Sugar and Coconut milk. It takes a little patience to make the sauce because you need to melt down the sugar into caramel over low heat. But it is worth the wait!!!

I usually like to make Nam Wan with coconut milk that is specifically used for making desserts. I usually use the dessert coconut milk below (there's even a picture of some dessert that looks like nam wan on it!) and regular C&H refined white sugar.



How to make Nam Wan Sauce:

Step 1: For this occasion, since I made one pack of tapioca balls, I just eyeballed the proportions and used about 2 cups of sugar. Put two cups of sugar in a small pot over LOW HEAT.


Step 2: As the sugar starts to heat up, continue to stir occasionally. The sugar should start forming light brown clumps. I took pictures at about 5 minute intervals of how the sugar started to carmelize. Pay attention to the bottom of the pot, and make sure you stir the sugar so it does not start burning on the bottom.




The sugar will slowly start to clump up, then carmelize and turn into a brown thick syrup.







Step 3: When most of the sugar has been melted (a few clumps is fine), pour in enough coconut milk (enough so the sauce is no longer dark brown, but a medium-light brown tone) and stir. There will be large hard chunks of caramel, so let the sauce boil and melt the remainder chunks. Make sure you scrape the bottom and side of the pot to loosen up any caramel on the pot.





Continue on Low to Medium heat as the caramel starts to melt into the sauce. Add as much coconut milk as you prefer. The more coconut milk you add, the less sweet the sauce becomes. I recommend adding coconut milk until the sauce is a medium brown, Mocha color. Having sweet sauce is actually better because later, you can add fresh coconut milk to your bowl of Nam Wan if it's too sweet. If you add too much coconut milk during the boiling process, you may dilute the sauce. Less is more in this case.



Step 4: Once the caramel chunks have melted into liquid, remove heat and let the sauce cool down.

Finished product:



Pour sauce over Nam Wan and add fresh coconut milk and mix.


Happy eating! =)