By Mrs Tombs (Catering Manager)

Twice a term the Green Kitchen runs a vote among the students for a cultural menu take over, this is where the students choose from five different countries for the Greens Team to create an authentic menu for the lunch time counters.

This time with a huge 51.4% of the vote was Thailand. One of the desserts on offer is Sankaya Faktong which is a Thai baked custard set in a sweet pumpkin - very fitting for this time of year, have a go at making it at home with this recipe, it’s a beautiful way to end a meal in pumpkin season!

This recipe if for six people:

• 1 x small sweet pumpkin like a festival pumpkin or kabocha squash
•  4 x eggs
• 180ml coconut milk
• 100gm palm sugar
•  ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 x teaspoon vanilla extract

 Method

1. Wash the pumpkin well, cut a circular opening at the top of the pumpkin. Use a glass or ramekin to mark the circle before using a very sharp knife to cut it out. Use a spoon and scoop out all of the pumpkin insides and rinse to ensure it's clean and smooth on the inside. Turn the pumpkin upside down on a towel or kitchen roll and leave to drip dry.
2. Next, make the custard by mixing the palm sugar, coconut milk, salt and vanilla extract over a medium heat until the palm sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and cool back to room temperature. Add the eggs to the coconut milk mixture and mix well to form the custard
3. Make sure the pumpkin is dry, if it's wet it can cause the custard to curdle when baking, when dry pour the custard into your hollowed out pumpkin, filling it to just below the circular opening
4. Next steam the pumpkin with the custard, add water to the bottom of a steamer pot and heat on a medium height. Place the pumpkin filled with custard into the top of the steamer. Leave the pumpkin open at the top. Steam the pumpkin for 45 minutes. If you don't have a steamer, you can do a DIY one by adding a small amount of water to a large saucepan with a colander sitting inside it, and placing the pumpkin into the colander.
5. Once you've taken the pumpkin off the heat let it cool completely to room temperature. Clean the pumpkin up if the custard has overflowed, then using a sharp knife cut the pumpkin into wedges and enjoy!