Cooking Kralan

Kralan is something of a speciality in Kratie. It is not uncommon to see sellers dotted along the roads with bundles carefully weighed and bound into neat parcels. If you are unfamiliar with Kralan it is a dish of sticky rice and beans cooked inside bamboo. The recipe itself is quite simple, using ingredients and bamboo packaging that are found in abundance. The preparation and cooking are a different story all together. 

Cooking started at 8am, the beans were toasted (check out the slippers) and steamed and the rice was washed and covered to stop the chickens from feasting. Meanwhile the men set out to find the perfect bamboo just outside the front of the house.

Three hours later it was time to start mixing things together, we had 10kg of rice and there was a lot of debate over how much sugar, salt, condensed milk and fresh coconut to add. The debate draws in a few more cooks and soon there are 5 women tasting, mixing, adding and re-tasting. By the time the final mix is agreed upon the men have got to work cutting the bamboo and the children have got hungry and started to drink the condensed milk.

At 1pm we were ready to start filling the bamboo. The end is capped off with the fibres from the fresh coconut and soon there is a wall of fire burning just behind us. Each Kralan is roasted against the fire for 3-4 hours and turned regularly for even cooking. I am jokingly invited to warm myself by the blazing fire and reminded that it is cold in my county.

At 4pm the first batch is ready but it can’t be eaten yet, first the outside of the bamboo must be carefully peeled away. One by one children and adults walk away with their prize and the cooking goes on until 10pm, a full 14 hours since we started.