Crispy Pandan Coconut Rice

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I was marooned for a few months in the Cayman Islands—how lucky!—and, thanks to my friend and fellow chef Gerardo Gonzales, found a second home at the Palm Heights hotel. The crispy coconut rice at Tillie’s, the hotel restaurant, inspired me to try my own version, with the addition of pandan leaves, an indigenous ingredient in the Philippines.

The taste of pandan (known as screw pine in the West) is difficult to describe: delicate, gras