Recipe: Noum Kong, Cambodian doughnut

Easy recipe for Noum Kong (bicycle wheel cake), a popular Cambodian sesame treat sold in street stalls in Phnom Penh or by street vendors.

Ingredients (20 to 25 fritters)

400 grams of fine Asian glutinous rice flour
2 tablespoons of coconut sugar or granulated sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
360-400 ml of coconut milk
frying oil - enough to have about 3 to 4 cm depth in a wide pan (a wok works well); preferably use a heat-tolerant oil such as peanut oil or a combination of light olive oil and sunflower oil

Mix the rice flour, sugar and salt. Add 360 ml of coconut milk little by little, stirring after each addition. Use your hands to mix the dough until it forms a ball and does not stick to the sides of the bowl. If the dough is a little dry, add the rest of the coconut milk. Do not make the dough too soft or the moisture will cause pockets of steam to expand and cause extrusion during frying. The dough should have the consistency of modelling clay.
Knead the dough for about 1 minute, then shape it into a ball and cover with plastic wrap.
Let rest for 15 minutes.
Prepare the oil and heat it over medium heat to a low frying temperature (170-180°C).
Pinch off pieces of dough the size of a golf ball and roll them into ropes about 15 cm long. Form circles and press down on the ends.
Place each doughnut very gently into the hot oil. In the first few seconds after placing each doughnut in the oil, use a spatula to slide it under the doughnut to loosen it from the pan so that it does not stick.
Then use a pair of chopsticks to stir the doughnut in the oil. Fry the doughnuts at a low temperature, turning them several times with chopsticks or tongs. Fry these doughnuts only until they are a light golden colour, which will take about 10 to 12 minutes.
Remove them from the oil with chopsticks or tongs when they are cooked and place them on a baking tray lined with kitchen paper or newspaper.

Pour the sugar in an even layer into the bottom of a pan. Pour in the water and heat the sugar and water over a high heat, without stirring, but swirling the pan occasionally. The mixture should bubble steadily. After about five minutes, the sugar syrup will begin to change colour slightly.
Lower the heat to medium and continue cooking the syrup, stirring gently until it turns a caramel colour. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
Holding each doughnut carefully horizontally with your fingers or a pair of tongs, dip the top of each doughnut lightly into the icing, then place it on a wire rack to harden.