Coconut jam

Coconut jam

A Pandan flavour coconut jam
Origin
Alternative name(s)	Srikaya, kaya
Place of origin	Malaysia
Details
Type	Spread
Main ingredient(s)	Coconut, sugar, eggs

Kaya, Serikaya or Srikaya (Malay: kaya; Indonesian: seri kaya; Tagalog: matamís sa báo, matamís na báo, or kalamay-hatì; Hokkien: 咖吔 ka-ia) is a food spread, a fruit curd made from a base of coconut milk, eggs and sugar. It is wildly popular in Southeast Asia, mainly in Palembang city in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The word kaya means rich in the Malay language and hence represents the texture of this popular food.

Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore

A close-up of Kaya showing texture.

Kaya, also called Srikaya or coconut egg jam, is a sweet creamy coconut spread made from coconut milk (also known as santan), duck or chicken eggs which are flavored by pandan leaf and sweetened with sugar. The colour varies depending on the colour of the egg yolks, the amount of pandan and extent of caramelisation of the sugar. As a popular local spread, kaya is typically spread on toast to make kaya toast and eaten in the morning but is enjoyed throughout the day. Kaya can be found in most kopitiam and night markets.

Different varieties available include nyonya kaya, which is a lighter green colour, and Hainanese kaya, which is a darker brown and uses caramelised sugar, and is often further sweetened with honey.

Kaya is used as a topping for several desserts including pulut taitai or pulut tekan, a dessert of sweet glutinous rice coloured blue with butterfly pea flowers (bunga telang), and pulut seri muka, a similar dessert but coloured green with pandan leaves. It is also used with glutinous rice to make kuih seri kaya.

Philippines

Philippine coconut jam is made from coconut cream (the first and second press of grated coconut meat) and cane sugar extract or molasses (treacle). It is often eaten on toast or pandesal and is used to make kalamay.

Thailand

Main article: Coconut custard

Sangkhaya (Thai: สังขยา, pronounced [sǎŋkʰàjǎː]) is a similar concoction but it has a less sticky and more custard-like texture. It is sometimes called "coconut custard" in English and is used to make sangkhaya fakthong (สังขยาฟักทอง,  [sǎŋkʰàjǎː fáktʰɔ̄ːŋ]; sangkhaya maryu in Lao), sangkhaya pumpkin or custard pumpkin, khao niao sangkhaya (ข้าวเหนียวสังขยา,  [kʰâːw nǐaw sǎŋkʰàjǎː]), glutinous rice with sangkhaya, and sangkhaya maphrao (สังขยามะพร้าว,  [sǎŋkʰàjǎː māpʰráːw]), sangkhaya served in a coconut.

See also

• Kaya toast
• Sankya lapov
• Nata de coco

External links

• Famous Thai Dishes including photos of Thai sangkhaya desserts
• Not your usual kaya with three recipes made with palm sugar, pumpkin and taro