Kuih talam (pandan and coconut steamed cake)

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Ingredients

120 g rice flour
50 g tapioca starch, cornstarch works in a pinch, texture is slightly less chewy
160 g granulated sugar
350 ml water
10 ml pandan paste, or juice from blitzed fresh pandan leaves if you can get them
2 g fine salt

Grease a 20 cm square (or similarly sized rectangular) heatproof dish and line the base with parchment. Set up a steamer, wok, or large pot with a rack, and bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat, using a lid large enough to cover the dish without dripping condensation onto it.
Make the pandan layer: stir the pandan paste into the water. Whisk in the rice flour, tapioca starch, sugar, and salt until you have a smooth, thin batter with no lumps. Pour into the prepared dish.
Cover and steam the pandan layer over medium-high heat for 20 to 25 minutes, topping up the steamer water if needed, until the layer is fully set, firm, and no longer jiggles when you tap the side of the dish.
While the pandan layer steams, make the coconut layer: whisk the boiling water into the rice flour, tapioca starch, and salt until smooth, then whisk in the coconut milk until you have a smooth, pourable batter.
Once the pandan layer is set, lightly scratch the surface with a fork, then pour the coconut batter evenly over the top.
Cover and steam again over medium heat for 20 to 25 minutes, until the coconut layer is firm and set and no longer jiggles when tapped.
Turn off the heat and let the kuih cool in the dish at room temperature for about an hour, then chill, covered, for at least 2 hours, or overnight, until completely firm.
Run a knife around the edge, turn out if you like, and cut into diamonds or squares with a wet knife, wiping the blade clean between cuts.

Fresh pandan leaves are not something you will find in a German supermarket. Pandan paste, sold at most Asian grocers here, is the practical substitute: stir it into the water called for in the pandan layer, starting with the 10 ml above and tasting the batter before adding more. A drop or two of green food colouring helps if the paste alone gives too pale a green.
Keeps covered in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. Serve cold or at room temperature; do not freeze, the starch layers turn grainy and weep on thawing.
If you can find mung bean starch (hoen kwee flour), swapping it in for a fifth of the rice flour in each layer gives a silkier, more traditional texture, though the version above is deliberately simplified to two starches.