Cambodia: Fish Amok, Beef Lak Lok, Vegetarian Kabob & Vegetable Salad With Lemon Cashew Dressing
Cambodia was
once known as the Khmer Empire & is now officially
the Kingdom of Cambodia. Located in Southeast
Asia, Cambodia is bordered
by Vietnam to the east, Laos to the
northeast & Thailand to the northwest. The Khmer
cuisine of Cambodia is unique for
several reasons. It is one of
the World's oldest living cuisines. In addition
the elegant & subtle use of spices in Khmer food stands in
contrast to its neighbour countries passion for spices. More
powerfully, the Khmer cuisine, like its people, has shown
remarkable resilience to survive in the face of adversity and challenges.
Cambodian
cuisine was almost wiped out and forgotten as a
consequence of the horrors of
the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s, & it has only been
quite recently that Khmer cuisine has made a revival. It was a particularly special culinary event for Q-Zine as my daughters have strong links to Cambodia & they were both here in the Q-Zine Kitchen cooking the menu they created for me. Both my Daughters & my Niece have worked in Cambodia to support under-privileged children & I am totally I awe of their work there. I found Khmer food to be surprisingly special & this meal had
amazing, subtle flavours!
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Our Cambodian menu included
Fish Amok
Beef Lak Lok
Vegetarian Kabob
&
Vegetable Salad With Lemon Cashew Dressing
Which we served with
a Tropical Fruit Platter, French Bread & Jasmine Rice
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
BEEF LOK LAK
INGREDIENTS
· 700g Rump
beef- sliced in strips
· 1/2 teaspoon
salt
· 1 tsp palm
sugar or brown sugar
· 1/2 teaspoon
crushed black pepper
· 1 tablespoon
fish sauce
· 2 tbs soya
sauce
· 1 tbs ketchup
Manis
· 2 tsp
vegetable oil
· 5 cloves garlic
(crushed)
· 1 onion,
chopped
For the pepper
sauce:
· 2 teaspoon
sugar
· 1 teaspoon
salt
· 2 teaspoon
crushed back pepper
· 2 teaspoon
crushed garlic
· 1 - 3 lime
METHOD
1.
Mix sugar, salt, pepper, oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce,
ketchup and garlic in a mixing bowl, add meat and coat thouroughly.
2.
Marinate the beef with soya sauce mix for 30 mins to 60
minutes..
3.
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok or nonstick skillet.
4.
sautee onions until brown
5.
Add the marinated beef and continue to stir-fry for 5-7
mins.
6.
For the dipping sauce : combine spices with freshly squeezed
lime juice into a sauce bowl.
7.
Serve the beef over lettuce leaves
8.
Eat beef wrapped in a lettuce leaf and dipped into the
pepper sauce.
Q-Zine
Recipe adapted from originals found at:
http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/recipes/loc-lac-recipe/
Ingredients
FISH AMOK
INGREDIENTS
· 4 large fish
fillets (white firm flesh fish)
· 4 sticks of
lemongrass, trimmed of woody bits, minced
· 2 inch piece
of ginger, peeled & minced
· 2 inch piece
fresh turmeric root or 1 tsp turmeric powder
· 3 dried
chillies, soaked & chopped
· 40g shallots,
sliced
· 4 large kaffir
lime leaves
· 4 cloves
garlic, minced
· 2 large eggs,
beaten
· 1 teaspoon
salt
· 1 teaspoon
brown sugar
· 2 teaspoons
fish sauce
· 2 teaspoons
red curry paste
· 2 cups of
coconut cream
· 2 banana
leaves (washed)
· tooth picks
METHOD:
1. blitz
lemongrass, ginger, turmeric &
chilli in a blender or ground with mortar & pestle to make Amok spice mix
2. In a bowl, mix
amok spices, sugar, salt, fish sauce, garlic, shallots & coconut milk.
3. Heat 1 tbsp
vegetable oil in a saucepan and then add the curry paste and fry till fragrant
(about a minute).
4. Then add the
coconut milk mix and simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Remove from
heat & leave to cool.
6. Chop fish into
bite-sized pieces
7. Beat the eggs
gently into the cooled coconut milk mixture and add the chunks of fish. This is
your amok.
8. Set the amok
to one side and let set aside for around 15 mins.
9. Now make your
banana leaf bowls that the Amok will be cooked in
10. Take banana leaf & cut away the stem with
scissors then cut sheets of leaf into large oblongs
11. Now it’s a bit
like origami
12. Fold in half so it makes a square. Overlap two
corners of the square and secure with a cocktail stick. Overlap the other two
corners and do the same. You should get a rough bowl or boat shape with no
gaps.
13. Take a large
baking dish & fill with about an inch of water – this will be the ‘steam
bath’ for your Amok boats
14. Fill the banana leaf boats with Amok mix &
place them in the water, making sure water is about half way up the boats when
they are all in the pan. Do not let boats be flooded by water or leave them too
dry.
15. Add the kaffir
lime leaves to top of each boat
16. Now the tray
of Amok boats go into a medium hot oven (180 degrees C), to steam the amok for
25 minutes or until the fish is cooked & coconut curry sets into a savory
custard consistency.
TIP: we found we
could not make a watertight bowl with our banana leaves so we gave our ‘boats’
an extra outside watertight layer with alfoil. You may have better luck than
us. It was not as appealing to look at as we hoped but If your boats are not
watertight the water from the ‘steam bath’ will flow into your boats &
dilute your Amok so it doesn’t set right
Q-Zine
Recipe adapted from originals found at:
http://www.fairlycambodian.com/may-amok-recipe/
PALE CHOMCAK
( VEGETARIAN
KABOB)
INGREDIENTS :
· 2 Large
tomato, cut in to quartered
· 1 Yellow Onion
· 1 Large
Capsicum, de-seeded
· 2 Zucchini
· 500gm
Mushroom, peeled
· ½ fresh Pineapple, skin & core removed
· Bamboo skewers
METHOD:
1.
Soak bamboo skewers in water for 20 minutes to minimise
burning of ends under the grill
2.
Cut vegetables into 3
cm square pieces
3.
Threads fruit and vegetables through the skewers
4.
tomato first because it cook faster
5.
Cook kabob on/under grill for 10 mins then turn over &
repeat
Q-Zine
Recipe adapted from originals found at:
VEGETABLE
SALAD WITH LEMON CASHEW DRESSING
INGREDIENTS:
· 1 Carrot,
peeled
· I Cucumber
· 1 Tomato
· 1 green
Capsicum
· 1 lettuce
· 100g of
Cabbage
· ½ Spanish
Onion
· 2cloves of
Garlic, chopped
· 1 tbs fresh
Lemon juice
· 2tbs Olive Oil
· 50g Cashew,
toasted & smashed
· 4tsp of Sugar
· ½ tsp Salt
METHOD:
1. Thinly slice carrot,
tomato, capsicum, cabbage & onion & mix together
2. Line a bowl with
the lettuce
3. Combine lemon
juice, olive oil, chopped garlic, smashed cashew, sugar and salt to form
dressing
4. Drizzle
dressing over the salad & serve
Q-Zine
Recipe adapted from original found at:
theasiandiary.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/mixed-vegetable-salad-with-peanut-nhaom.html
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