For something a little sweet, and very homey feeling, we decided to make something Sean’s Grandma used to make for him growing up, a sweet glutinous rice dumpling called chāvah (or tangyuan in mandarin).

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This one is filled with a mixture of sesame, peanuts, palm sugar, coconut oil, and green cardamom. Palm sugar might be one of the most common Bengali dessert flavors. These chāvah are simply boiled in cardamom water that has a little bit of kerwa in it. Kewra is a plant that is related to pandan. It’s essence is called Kewra water and is often used to add floral notes and fragrance in everything from savory biriyanis to sweet desserts.