Jalao

Ingredients

• 300 g fresh grated coconut
• 300 g dark brown sugar
• 100 ml water
• a thumb of ginger, grated
• a strip of lime zest

Method

1. Melt the sugar with water and ginger

   Bring the sugar, water, ginger and lime zest to a boil and cook until it thickens and darkens, about eight minutes.

   8 min

2. Coconut in, and keep stirring

   Add the coconut and cook, stirring constantly, for another ten minutes until the mixture pulls away from the base of the pan in a mass.

   10 min

3. The soft-ball test

   Drop a little into cold water: it should form a soft ball you can pinch. Too soon and the jalao will not hold its shape; too late and it sets into something that could break a tooth.

4. Shape while hot

   Let it cool just enough to handle and roll into balls with wet hands. They set hard within the hour and keep for a week in a tin.