14:14:24How many kinds of herbs do you know? There are many kinds of herbs in Cambodia, in particular when it comes to vegetarian Khmer food. They are an important part of an ingredients in cooking and used differently depending on the food. Herb plays a role in cooking for decoration, taste and adding flavor to food. More than this it is a crop that people can grow at home. Now we are going to tell you about some herbs that people in Cambodia love to use in food.
Rice paddy herb or ma om
Ma om, or rice paddy field herb.
Rice paddy grows almost everywhere in the field.There are two types of rice paddy herbs, one has green stem and leaves, other one is dark red and has a purple flower. Rice paddy herbs are an important ingredient for sweet and sour soup that you can not miss. Beside sweet and sour soup you also can use it as a vegetable with any vegetarian khmer food or add it to beef soup. It is often used as a decoration as well.
Spring onion in vegetarian Khmer food
Spring onion is found in many vegetarian Khmer food dishes
This herb can be grown at home or grown by farmers to sell at the market. Spring Onion normally is use in Somlor sngor(សម្លស្ងោរ) or Soup as decoration. Also used as a vegetable in nearly every vegetarian Khmer food. In addition, spring onions also have benefits for health too.
Ivy (Sloekbeas in khmer)
Ms. Dary show you how to pick ivy
Ivy is a simple one that most Khmer people know and easy to find. It is a type of vine that mostly grows on house fences. Mostly used as vegetable in dishes such as samlor korko, somlor brahare and boiled with pork. You can lean how to pick ivy and cook it with food with pork at our host Dary. She also offers cooking vegetarian Khmer food for you.
Lemon grass
Lemon gras
Cambodians in general use lemongrass in cooking or as a medicine. With many benefits, lemon grass is one of people’s favorite homegrow. Lemongrass is used in Kreung, some kind of sweet and sour soup and somlor. More than this, Lemongrass has advantages for health and helps you to relax your mind as well.
These are just some of the herbs we mentioned. There are many other types of herbs that Cambodians use to make food, drink or processed into traditional medicine. Why not do cooking class with locals to get to know more herbs that they like to use in food?
Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples have been the center of an vast empire for hundreds of years. We do know who ruled the Khmer Kingdom, but we know little about the daily life of average people. For example the food secrets of Cambodia. The only clues we can get are from the carvings at the temples. And there, we learn about the history of Cambodian food and the way it was prepared.
When visiting the Angkor Wat archeological park you will see food and farming on each wall of the temples are different designs, carvings and descriptions. In this article we will show you some carvings that are a part of the Bayon temple and describe the lives of people in the past.
Farming in ancient Cambodia Times
Based on those carvings, we know that in the past Khmer people were occupied with hunting and fishing for a living. They also sold or exchanged goods for each other. But the carvings reveal some of the food secrets of Cambodia.
Bayon temple shows food secrets of Cambodia in carvings
Even in ancient times Cambodians used a cooking place that resembles the outdoor kitchens of today. A carving at the Bayon temple shows a group of people in the kitchen. Some are cooking rice (not really a food secrets of Cambodia), some are preparing ingredients for cooking and some are light up the fire. This carving not only shows us about people who are cooking but also shows us about what kind of materials people used. All of the tools such as stoves, pots and pans in ancient Khmer kitchens may have been made of clay or brass, depending on the era.
Farming in ancient Cambodia Times
In addition to carvings showing us cooking, we also have a carving that shows about eating . Now Let’s take a look at the next carving below. One of the less know food secrets of Cambodia is, that at the time of Jayavarman II. most Khmer dishes were developed. But one ingredient wasn’t available yet: chili. It came later from South-America, and that is one reason why Thai food developed later – is spicy, but Khmer food usually isn’t. We haven’t found any signs of chili plants in the carvings.
Food secrets in Cambodia: Ancient way of cooking in Angkor Wat
This carving shows the activities of people eating. It looks like a group of people, eating together at a party or family meal in different places. still today Cambodians often sit together in a circle on a bed or mat and use their hands for eating. But If we take a look at the carving on the right of the top in this part , we can see that a person is sitting on the short chair while other people are kneeling on the ground. So it might be that the higher ranking people sit seperated from the normal people.
This and what we know about the luxurious lifestyle of royals as well from trading with India and China suggests, that Khmer food had a lot of varieties. we don’t know if the fish paste prahok was developed yet, but it is likely. The kings cooks had everything regarding spices and meats at their disposal, and the surely used it.
These are just some of the carvings mentioned above. There are many other carvings that show stories about the living of the people. When you visit the Bayon Temple, take the time to explore those carvings. There are so many stories told.
If you want to learn more about the secrets of Cambodian food and the daily life of Khmer, Dine with the locals will give you experiences of cooking , eating and more activities with locals.
Khmer soups (samlor or samlar) are an important part of Cambodian food. There are different reasons: They can be made fast, only one pot and one fireplace is needed, and you can throw in whatever is available. We listed for you the 5 best samlor we think Cambodian cuisine has to offer. There are, however, lots of more soup recipes available.
Khmer soups are usually made from a clear broth or even water. However, samlor curry for example is a thick soup, while nom ban chock samlor trey is a classic breakfast dish where rice noodles and vegetables are added to the soup. We focus here on the clear soups and what we think are the 5 best Khmer soups you should try when in Cambodia – or cook at home.
We listed the recipes and ingredients as they are told us by our Khmer host families at Dine With The Locals. As in any food culture, those recipes are traded within families, so they differ. They also depend on the season and what is available on the market or in the backyard garden.
1. Samlar Korko
One of the most underrated dishes and yet popular in Cambodian families. What makes this soup so special is the palm sugar melted in oil and the roasted rice powder. Also, the use of young jackfruit slices might be new to you if you only know the sweet fruits.
Ingredients
Half cup Khmer kreung
tablespoon fish paste (prahok)
3 tablespoons of pa-ulr (rice grains, roasted and pounded)
Fish flesh, cleaned and sliced.
or 200g of chicken meat or tofu
Vegetables (pumpkin, green papaya, green banana, green jack fruit, long bean, eggplant, Khmer eggplant, chili leaf, bitter gourd leaf)
1 tablespoon of palm sugar
3 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 liter broth or water
How to make it:
Melt the palm sugar in hot oil in a pot, Once it’s liquid, add the krueng paste (here you can read how to make it). Stir until fragrant, then add the vegetables. Stir and let them brown a bit. Add the chicken and fish or tofu, the fish paste (prahok) fish sauce and water. Let it boil, then add the rice powder and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. Somlor Prohor
This is one of the soups where gourd is used. We call this one of the best Khmer soups because we think gourds are often forgotten and we just know cucumbers and pumpkins. In Cambodia, gourd – and in particular the luffa gourd we use here – growing in backyards and on fences of many houses in the countryside.
Ingredients
Meat: snakehead fish or smoked fish
Vegetables: Luffa gourd, winter melon, taro, pumpkin, pumpkin leaves or Ivy leaves, mushroom, rice paddy herb (some regions use it, some do not) lemon grass, turmeric, and garlic or kreung paste.
Soup powder or chicken broth, fermented fish (in Samlork, we use fish sauce), brown sugar, salt, and Kreoung
How to make it:
Melt the sugar in oil and add the kreung paste as well as the prahok. Add water with soup powder or broth, the just add all the vegetables. Bring it to a boil, then lower heat to simmer it for 20 minutes. Don’t stir because the fish will break down. Finally, add the leaves and simmer it for five more minutes.
3. Bitter melon with pork (one of the best Khmer soups in Cambodian cuisine)
Stuffed vegetables are common in many countries. I remember from Germany filled paprika aka bell peppers, where we stuffed minced pork and rice in together with salt and pepper and then let it get done in the oven. In Cambodia, the concept of an oven is not common, dishes are heated on fire, gas stoves or a grill. This Khmer soups can be done with bell peppers or gourd as well.
Ingredients
3 small bitter melons
1/2 lb ground pork
1 small bunch bean thread soaked wash cut to tiny pieces
3 cloves of garlic pound to paste in mortar
2 tbs of dried shrimp soaked set aside
2 tbs of dried turnip wash set aside
1 tbs of soy sauce
1 chicken bouillon cube
½ tsp salt
2 green onions chopped for garnish
4 ½ cups water Best Khmer soups in Cambodia: Bitter melon soup with pork
How to make it
Peel the bitter melon, then cut into 8 cm long parts, then take all the seeds out and create a hole to stuff the meat inside. Mix the pork with garlic and pepper as well as the dried turnip and the bean threads and fill the bitter melon with it. Bring water to boil, add a cube of bouillon and the soy sauce. Add the filled bitter melon and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Add the shrimps and garnish with spring onions.
4. Beef sweet and sour soup with morning glory (Samlor Machou)
When you hear sweet and sour, you may immediately picture those two tastes together. But think about lemon juice with sugar. In Cambodia, sour and sweet go well together in the best Khmer soups like this one with beef. You can replace the meat with tofu and/or mushrooms or so called fake meat if you like.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 small bowl of lemongrass leaves
20 gr sliced beef
teaspoon of salt – 1 tablespoon of sugar
4 glasses of water
2 orange leaves Cut a knot about 1 inch long –
2 tablespoons ripe tamarind juice
2 spoons of fish sauce
1 bowl of fertilizer and sweet potato 4 peppers or can be put to taste
1 spoon of prahok
How to make it:
We assume you either know how to make kreung or you buy it at the market, so we will not include it in this recipe. First clean the morning glory and remove old leaves. Cut it in pieces and set aside.
Slice the beef and marinate it with the kreung paste, at least for 20 minutes. Fry the beef in oil for a few minutes, then move to a cooking pot. Add the water, some soup powder and 2/3 of the morning glory. Pound the other stems in a mortar or blend it. Let it simmer for a while, then add salt, prahok if you like, tamarind sauce and fish sauce. Finally, add the lemongrass – common in so many Khmer soups – to it. Let it simmer until it gets a dark green color.
5. Fish sour lemon soup (Sngor chrouk trei)
The word Sngor means just cooking, and while the word samlor means soup, different dishes and different names are also part of the best samlor soups in Cambodia. The last one in our list is simple, but can be found in nearly every household. One reason: not many ingredients needed, most can be collected near the house (at least at the countryside).
Ingredients
2 lbs (900 gram) of whole fresh basa, catfish or snakehead fish, cleaned and cut chunks
2 tablespoons of uncooked Jasmine rice, rinsed and drained
1 n lemon grass stalk, cut 5 inches in length and tied to bunches
4 cups of water
1/2 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
2 stalks of green onion, chopped
2 chopped hot chili pepper
1/2 cup of chopped mix herbs of sweet basil (chee korhom), and Asian coriander (chee xanghum)
1 fresh lime or lemon, sliced
How to make it
Cut the fish into cubes or thin slices. In Cambodia, fillet is rarely used, instead the fish is chopped up from head to tail. Add then fish, water, rice lemongrass, fish sauce, sugar black pepper and chili into a pot and bring to boil. Let it cook for 20 minutes – the rice should be soft. Add then the herbs and the lemon juice. Simmer for 5 more minutes and then serve with rice.
Conclusion – Khmer soups in Cambodia
Every restaurant in Cambodia offers Khmer soups. If you stay longer than two night, you should really try the variety of those dishes. Also, many regions make different versions of them. They can be eaten as a main dish – with rice on the side – or they are part or a large order of different dishes for a party of 3 or more people, as it is common in Asia when people go out for dining.
Since I was young, I liked the taste of sour food, from pickles to fruits and dishes. When I felt not well, I’d like to eat sour dishes – they made me somehow feel stronger and awake. The Cambodian sweet and sour soup (in Khmer called Samlor machu trey) is special, since it also contains chili. Once they kicked it, I sometimes started sweating – kind of natural body cleansing. Mostly I cooked this soup on Sundays when I was a student, when our family wanted to give my mother a break from daily house duties. Still, she handed me a list with ingredients I bought at the local market.
Cambodian sweet and sour soup
Soup was the first I ever cooked, I still remember– an easy one with potatoes and mushroom and carrots.
Cambodian sweet and sour soup is one of the popular dishes for Khmer
Cambodian cuisine is more diverse than some may think. If we talk about Khmer food and what people cook for daily life, we will think of one kind of Khmer soups (called Samlor). The Cambodian sweet and sour soup is one of the popular dishes, easy and fast to prepare and healthy.
People usedifferent kinds of vegetables and fish to make it, like rice fields craps or small shrimps, to make sweet and sour soup in many types. For the simple one we can use green papaya pieces, water lily, morning glory, the core of the banana stem and winter melon. Ifyou cook sweet and sour soup in Cambodia with kreung ( the traditional Khmer spice paste) and coconut milk, and you want to add vegetable, morning glory is a popular one to add, usually without shrimps.
Cooking Cambodian sweet and sour soup
We call it then samlor machu kreoung.The important ingredient that we should not miss is prahok, the infamous Khmer fermented fish paste, and sour fruit. Sour fruit could be tamarind, lime or lucidas fruit.
Lucida fruits are essential
One of the secrets why Cambodian sweet and sour soup is so popular lies in the ingredients. They are easy to find, often just around the house. The soup is an every day dish, found regularly on many lunch tables in Khmer houses. Enjoy our virtual cooking class here!
How to make sweet and sour soup (classic style)
Ingredients for classic Cambodian sweet and sour soup
Fish
Morning glory
Garlic
Galangal
Prahok or fish sauce
Salt
Sugar
Seasoning
Tamarind / lemon/krosang fruit
Rice paddy herb or holy basil
Chili
How to cook it
Clean the fishClean the morning glory
Clean the fish using first water and then salt and clean morning glory, then cut into pieces. (If you are vegetarian, use fried tofu cubes instead)
Peel of garlic, slice galangal, put tamarind into a bowl, smash it an add a bit of hot water to make sour sauce.
Put prahok in a bowl of hot water and pour into the pot while the water is boiling. If prahok is to intense, use fish sauce. For a vegetarian option use mushroom sauce. Then addtamarind sauce, garlic and galangal.
After the water boiled for about 10 minutes, add fish cubes(as well as crap and small shrimps, if you want to add).
Once the fish is cooked and soft add the vegetables, salt, sugar, seasoning and a bit of fish sauce.
Lastly, put rice paddy herb or holy basil, chilly and its done.
Sweet and sour soup in Cambodia with kreung spice paste
There is no right or wrong with using kreung paste for the soup, it just gives a more intense taste.
Ingredients:
Ingredients (for 4-6 people)
fish 1kilogram
lemongrass 4 pieces
Dried chilly3 pieces
Turmeric1 small piece (2 cm)
Galangal1 small piece (1.5 cm)
Kaffir lime 3 leaves
Lucidas fruit3-4 depend on size (can be replaced with lemon)
3 long peppers
Prahok 30g
Fish sauce 1 tablespoon
•Garlic 1 glove
Seasoning1teaspoon
Salt 1/2 tablespoon
Sugar palm 1/2 tablespoon
Steps to make it:
Clean fish with salt and cut to pieces.
Slice lemon grass, garlic, turmeric galangal add a bit of salt and punch until smooth.
Squeeze a lucida fruit into a bowl, add minced prohok, slice pepper into small pieces.
Mince and soak dried chilli .
Mix fish, kreoung, prahok, squeezed lucidas fruit or lemon,palm sugar, fish sauce and seasoning into a pot add a bit of water stir gently.
Start heating on medium heat, keep boiling for 5 mins then add 1/4 cup of water
Simmer until fish is cooked.
Add kraffir lime leaves to taste
Lastly add slices of peppers.
In Cambodia, a soup is usually served with rice. Some families will also add some herbs and fresh vegetables, whatever is handy. If you are invited or visit one of our hosts, you would pour the soup in a bowl, then get a small plate with rice. You can pour soup over the rice or just eat both separately.
It is one of the most important ingredients in Cambodian cuisine, used in stir fried dishes as well as soups or when meat is marinated. If you want to know how to make Kreung we can assure you: it’s quite easy and you should get all ingredients in supermarkets, asia markets or even in your garden.
Kreung is a main ingredient in fish amok, but also used in many soups like samlor korko. Another dish are stir fried vegetables with any kind of meat or tofu, where Kreung is then added.
Despite what the name suggests the spice paste is not spicy. There isn’t even chilli used when you learn how to make Kreung. It’s is related to the use of different herbs and spices. Kreung can be bought at the market – many Cambodians buy it there for daily use – but its much more intense in taste pleasing your palates when you make it from scratch.
Slice galangalThe ingredients for how to make kreungRemove the ribs from the kaffir lime leavesUse a sharp knife or cleaverall you need to make KreungLemongrass is essentialSlice the ingredients finelyYou can use a mortar or a food processorGrinding and poundingLearn how to make KreungKreung – the cambodian spice paste
How to make Kreung in a mortar
The traditional way of producing Kreung is in a classic mortar. It can be made of stone or wood – the result will be the same. You also need a good knife and a chopping board – in Cambodia is a wooden board in every household used for this task.
Ingredients for Kreung (sometimes also called Royal Kreung)
First you need to cut the lemongrass into fine slices. Remove the middle rib from the kaffir lime leave. Only use the white and bright green part of the stalks. Then peel and slice galangal, garlic and ginge as thin as possible. For turmeric you can use either the root or just a teaspoon of power.
Then place lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves in the mortar and start grinding. You can go in circles to ensure that the oil is released from the broken cells. Add the other ingredients and grind until it becomes a thick paste.
Make Kreung in a food processor
If you don’t have a mortar, you can use a food processor or a blender. You still need to cut the ingredients but it doesn’t have to be that fine. The best way how to make Kreung in a food processor is to start again with the hard parts and then add the other ingredients. Don’t use the highest setting.
Red and green Kreung
There are variants of Kreung, and the difference lies in some other ingredients. The green Kreung uses more lemongrass and less – or not at all – tumeric. For the red Kreung you replace the tumeric with chilli. use fresh chilies to get a bright color and a well developed flavor.
How to make Kreung while in Cambodia
If you want to learn how to make Kreung while traveling in Cambodia, you should visit our host Ms. Laum. She will show you how Kreung is used as an ingredient in the famous dish fish amok. You can book the cooking class in Siem Reap with her here.
While we still think that Dine With The Locals provides you the best experience regarding Khmer food, we understand that going out is also important while visiting Siem Reap. Therefore we checked who is still there after Covid-19 and who are the best 5 Khmer Restaurants in Siem Reap. We did an extensive research and found some not well known places tourists usually don’t have on their list – or which aren’t mentioned in – mostly outdated – travel books and blogs.
Jomno, one of the best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap
Our most important criteria for a good restaurant is of course the food. It has to be local food, authentic and well prepared. We also like a twist, something that stands out. The environment plays also a big role – plastic chairs should be the exemption. And we care about a good service, because this is what make you feel comfortable in the best restaurants in Siem Reap.
The price range isn’t that wide in Siem Reap, since we do not cover street food here (but soon in another post). You get decent meals in a range from 3 to 8 US-Dollar for a main dish.
Jomno – modern Khmer cuisine
This place started in a small side street behind Wat Damnak with a street food concept, but moved to a bigger house next to the Deihoy market. Jomno offers fine Khmer food with a twist, a modern approach but still authentic. They have a nice garden, but also indoor seating. It is accessible for wheelchairs and strollers.
You have small bites like a frittata or fresh marinated fish. For the meat eaters, we recommend the Battambang sausage. What makes it to the top of the list of the best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap is not only the presentation of the food, but also the creative and extensive vegan menu. Try the meat ball lok lak or the plant bases sausage roll. Starters are around $3 dollar, while main courses are in the $8 range. It is (for now) open every day from 11am to 10 PM.
Jomno, one of the best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap
Banllee – vegetarian Khmer food
We think it’s time to make a change, so this vegetarian restaurant is also on the list even if they aren’t serving some of the traditional Khmer meat dishes. The restaurant is located in Street 26 and survived Covid-19 with a focus in vegetarian Khmer food – a good decision. Banlle has some other dishes as well, but if you a craving for Khmer noodles, this is the place to go.
Vegetarian prahok ktis at Banlle
Out top favorite is the vegetarian Prahok Ktis. Prahok is a Khmer fish paste, and at Banlle they make it from fermented tofu. An absolute delight with fresh vegetables on the side. Talking about veggies: Many of them are grown in the garden, and you may watch the chef cutting your greens before preparing the food for you. Prices are in the $3 to $5 US-Dollar range. Opening times are 7am – 9pm, Tuesday they are closed.
The Christa – family owned restaurant near Pub Street
The owner Rak moved his restaurant from behind Wat Damnak to the street 7 right behind Pub street. It is a shop house with steep steps to reach the first floor, but a great place to watch people go by. There is even a rooftop with tables.
Samlor Machu Ktis at The Christa
The Christa offers affordable Khmer food in a wide range. Our favorites are the machu ktis, a dish with tamarind sauce and the Cha Kreung, mixed vegetables with Khmer spice paste. The kitchen offers all main Khmer dishes, like Amok and beef stew, but we would recommend some less known meals, like the Khmer curry. We like that you can choose if you want meat or tofu for most dishes. They do have good cocktails as well. Opening times are every day from 11.30am to 10 pm.
Temple coffee ‘n bakery – one of the best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap
The Temple group owns nowadays half of Pub street, but the venue at the riverside is less popular with tourists – but great when it comes to Khmer food. You can go there for breakfast and enjoy a well done fried rice with pork (somehow called school children breakfast) or for lunch or dinner some of the more fancy dishes.
Grilled Pork with rice at Temple bakery
They are popular with younger people, in particular in the evening. What stands out are the comfortable lounges upstairs and the rooftop bar with a pool – best place for sunset. The quality was never an issue for us in the last six years, but they did raise the prices. Expect $5 to $9 for a dish. Recommended are the Khmer noodles and the Prahok Ktis.
Tevy’s place
Tevy started her restaurant as a basic street food stall between the two Wat Damnak temple areas. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic she moved to street 7 and opened a new place. She is a hardworking woman, employing a few Khmer women now and became very popular with expats in Siem Reap. Her food is all freshly made, she has Khmer dishes but also offers some western food. You should try her fish amok and her Samlor Koko, a traditional Khmer soup. It’s open everyday from 730 am to 9.30 pm.
Samlor Koko at Tevy’s place
What else? Some others of the best restaurants in Siem Reap
With close to 1,000 restaurants and eateries, picking just the 5 best Khmer restaurants in Siem Reap is not an easy task. Most other places offer good local food as well. We can recommend Khmer Kitchen and Khmer Grill as a well as Haven. The latter has also lovely vegetarian and vegan dishes and is a training restaurant – you eat for a good cause there.
Another runner-up is Romsai cafe next to the Salakamreuk village office. But if you want to try Fish Amok, one of the popular dishes, we have to recommend you Ms. Laum, one of our hosts in Siem Reap. She will show you how it’s made and share the meal with you. It is an extraordinary food experience!
If you would like to know more about Khmer food, check out our YouTube Channel and follow us on TikTok (@dinewiththelocals). You can reach us through the booking form on the host pages as well as through Telegram and WhatsApp. Or just send an email to feedme@dinewiththelocals.com.
When you live a bit outside downtown, you will hear the sounds of frogs in the evening after the rain. and you will see some men with a headlight and a stick: They are hunting. The lights usually keeps frogs to freeze and the hunters pick them up and put them in a bucket. Frogs in Cambodia are a delicacy, and in the countryside moist people go out and hunt them.
Skinned: Frogs in Cambodia at the markets
The taste for frogs is not related to the French occupiers, who famously prefer the legs of the amphibians. In Cambodia, frogs are eaten since centuries. You can even find some stone carvings in Angkor Wat featuring frogs. It is said that frogs in Cambodia are present since before the Angkor period, however there are no documents left.
While hinting is an original way to supply the family with some proteins. frogs are gibt business. There are frog farmers all around the country, making a living from raising and selling them to markets. Around 700 of them got nearly 500.000 US-Dollar recently from the government to help them surviving during the Covid-19 pandemie. On the local markets, frogs are sold either alive or already skinned.
How to eat frog in Cambodia
if your are a traveler in Cambodia, best way to eat frog is as a street food or in a restaurant. Many street food places like along the river in Siem Reap or on road 60 in the evening will grill frogs over charcoal. The easiest way is to just skin them and then takes intestines out. Then its grilled until nearly charred. Some take the head of, some not.
Fried frogs in Cambodia – a delicacy
Stuffed frog
Another popular dish is stuffed frog. The inside of a frog is filled with pork and spices. You need to create the famous spice paste kreung for this recipe of frog n Cambodia. If you want to learn the make the paste while in Cambodia, some of our hosts will teach you!
The fresh kreung paste ist then mixed with minced pork. It is common in Cambodia to mince pork with a cleaver on a wooden chopping pork rather then buying it from the market – for freshness reasons. The frogs you use are usually without heads.
Battered frogs
A bit more efforts takes a delicious version of frogs in cambodia: Battered and deep fried. You just need to buy skinned frogs at the market, create a batter with baking powder, flour and water. Dip the frogs in the batter and deep fry them. As a sauce you crush small green chilli and garlic in a mortar until you have a paste and mi this with palm sugar.
How does frogs in Cambodia taste like?
Frog meat tastes a bit like chicken meat. Since frogs are significantly smaller, you may order a full plate of fried or grilled frogs when in a restaurant. You just eat the whole animal, with carefully taking bones out like you would do it with fish bones. At Cambodian parties, fried frogs are served as a snack, sometimes with fried insects or even spiders.
At our host families we usually don’t offer frog, since demand is not much for it from traveller s. However, if you are keen to try frog in Cambodia, please get in contact with us and we can talk to the hosts families if they can prepare it for you – you will also learn how to do it. The frogs will then bought at the market.
When we talk about food in Asia, Khmer curry (Samlor curry) as well as Thai and Indian curry is one of the first dishes that comes into our minds. The Khmer empire ruled once over large parts of what is today south-east Asia. As you can still see at the ancient site of Angkor Wat (which was built as a Hindu temple first), the culture was influenced by the Hindu religion and Indian food. One dish that remembers one of the culinary roots is Khmer curry. It combines spices brought from priests and business people to the kingdom with local ingredients.
Khmer Curry: Homemade
Cambodian food – as you will see in our cooking classes at Dine With The Locals – has two major ingredients special to the country: Kreung, a spice paste, and prahok, fermented fish. But are part of a long tradition of food in Cambodia. Prahok was used not only to give the food a certain taste. It was a way to store protein – from fish – in areas where there was drought or not much access to rivers and lakes. The Khmer curry combines all of them into a mild dish, found nearly everywhere in the country.
Khmer curry is not spicy
Other than Thai curries, the Khmer curry is not spicy at all. The reason: When Khmer food was developed during the Jayavarman period, chili was not yet known in the region. It came later from South-America. Cambodian food is usually more sweet, because palm sugar is a main ingredient. Other spices used are lemon grass, galangal, ginger and other roots.
Simmer the curry for 20 minutes
Ingredients for an authentic Khmer curry
1/2 Chicken
2 big cubes of blood curd
1.5 cup coconut milk
Kreuong paste (make it yourself or buy a at the market)
Fresh chilli, soaked in water
1 Onion
1 Sweet potato
3 tbs red curry powder
1 tspPrahok
1 tbp Palm sugar
Fish sauce to taste
1 cup water
Oil
Vegetarian Khmer curry
6 small cubes tofu
1.5 cup coconut milk
Kreuong paste (make it yourself or buy at the market)
Fresh chilli, soaked in water
1 Onion
1 Sweet potato
3 tbs red curry powder
1 tbp Palm sugar
Mushroom saucee
Oil
How to make a delicious Khmer curry
As with the more yellow Indian curry powder the red Khmer curry powder is rarely made fresh anymore. Most people buy it at the market. The main ingredients are Chili Powder, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Star Anise, Fennel Seed, Fenugreek Seed, Coriander and Cumin, although some may change the list a bit. Most important is that only a bit of chili is used – it should not be too spicy.
Clean the chicken and blood curd (slice the chicken if you want)
Cut the sweet potato in slices, as well as the onion
One of the most famous dishes in Cambodia is fish amok. It’s a kind of curry, but with a very local twist when it comes to spices used in it. Many restaurants offer it, at Cambodian homes it is mostly cooked vor special occasions. If you want to know how to cook fish amok at home, just follow our guide. We got the advise from our host Ms. Laum, who cooks on of the best fish amok in Siem Reap.
How to cook fish amok at home
What do you need for fish amok?
The dish is made from fish, species and coconut milk. It dates back to the times of the Khmer empire, and recipes have changed over time. For fish you can use freshwater fish, from tilapia to any carps or catfish. Best get a fillet at the market. The secret ingredient of fish amok is the Cambodian fish paste know as kreung. It contains lemongrass, galangal, tumeric, kaffir lime and garlic. Depending on your taste you can add any amount of chili to it.
In Cambodia people will nut fresh coconut milk at the market, but a canned one will do it as well. Also, the original recipe requires no i tree leaves. They can be replaced with kaffir lime leaves.
Mix the ingredients for fish amok well
Steaming or cooking?
There are two main ways of cooking fish amok. Or host Ms. Laum told people when asked how to cook fish amok at home that you can use a steamer or a pot. She herself steamed it for a while but now changed to just simmer it. The taste is basically the same, steamed fish amok is sometimes a bit more solid, in particular when egg was added.
Ingredients:
100g noni leaves or kaffier lime leaves
– 1 kg Cat/River fish
– 1 Teaspoon fish paste
– 2 Teaspoon salt
– 200g Kroeung paste
– 1Teaspoon palm/white sugar
– 300ml coconut milk.
If you want to make kreung by yourself, just combine finely sliceed lemongrass, ginger finger root, turmeric, kaffir lime slices (small and thin pieces) add some peeled garlic. Put them in a blender or mortar and blend until its a fine paste. You can also buy kreung at the market.
How to cook fish amok at home in 45 minutes
Preparation:
1. Salt the fish and cut into cubes
2. Slice noni or kaffir lime leaves in fine stripes
3. Mix kreung paste with sliced chilli.
4. Add fish paste (fermented fish, in Cambodia known as prahok) and mix together.
5. add coconut milk and mix well.
6. The add the dish and mix again.
7. Transfer it to a pot. You may want to add brown or palm sugar and fish sauce.
8. Heat up with the lit closed unti it boils. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes. If you have noni tree leaves, you can put some pieces on top.
9. Serve with rice.
Even Cambodians learn again how to make fish amok at home
You can cook fish amok at home in a pot
Since most ingredients, in particular kreung paste is nowadays available already mixed at markets, fish amok gets slowly back to the dining tables of Cambodians. Modern middle class families don’t have the time to squeeze coconut flesh in order to get the milk out of it. They just buy as much ingredients as they can an the market or supermarket. Some don’t even know how to make fish amok with a steamerwith a steamer at home any more – so they found a simpler way to cook it for the family.
If you want to make it while in Siem Reap, book this experience with Ms. Laum here. She will take you to all the steps and you have to work a bit before getting a yummy dinner in a local home in Cambodia.
Durian, also know as stinky fruit or The King of fruits, is an eatable fruit of a certain species of tree in Asia. It’s famous for the strong odor, but also for it delicious creamy texture. In Cambodia you can buy durian at most local markets as well as from street vendors. Durian is usually farmed in Kampot, Kampng Cham and around Battambang. Many fruits are imported from Thailand and Vietnam as well.
Durian is different from jackfruit. The latter is a much bigger fruit with smaller spikes and a different, more sweeter taste. The prices depend on the season and quality. You can get them starting from 13.000 riel per kg (about $3.50) all the way up to 20.000 riel ($5). Most stalls have a fix price, although there is a small margin for bargaining.
How to eat durian – our guide
Where to buy durian in Siem Reap?
Most people will direct you to the roundabout on Apsara road near the Sokha hotel. Many vendors have their cars lined up on the street. Most markets have stalls as well – just follow the smell. And that’s why supermarkets rarely sell it.
Can I take durian back to my hotel?
The simple answer is no. Hotels will not allow even locals to bring durian inside the premise or rooms. It’s also banned in buses and planes.
Where to eat it?
It is common to eat durian in the tuktuk on the way to Angkor Wat or other places to visit in Siem Reap. Cambodians know how to picknick, so they will just stop somewhere, sit in the shadow of a tree and enjoy durian and other fruits and food they bought on the way.
How to eat durian?
When you buy it on the street, ask the seller to open the fruit and take the eatable pieces out. They usually give you a box for it. Some sell the inner parts of the flesh (normally for a higher price). In the markets you may see them selling durian with sticky rice and coconut milk. There is also ice cream made from durian and dried durian chips.
When eating you may use plastic gloves of a fork. Once you have contact with your skin, the smell may stay for a while, even after washing your hands. Also be aware of the seed inside – it cannot be eaten raw. But you can bake them until soft.
The outside skin (the one with the spikes) can be used as traditional local medicine. They say it helps for the pain during a women’s period. The skin is dried and then boiled with water.
When you travel through Cambodia there is no way you can avoid fish amok. It’s offered in most restaurants, but it’s not an everyday dish in families. We wrote a guide about this typical food – you will learn what is fish amok and how is it made.
What is Cambodian Fish Amok?
What is Fish Amok? (known as amok trey in Khmer)
Cambodia has so many well known traditional dishes. Amok is one of the national food examples of Cambodia. There aremany local ways of cooking this delicacy. Depending on the region, some traditional amoks are cooked steamed in a banana leaf basket or a simple wrap. Some use only little coconut milk while other put in a whole can. Also the steamers can be different.
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok: a brief history.
Amok is widely distributed in Cambodia. It is a type of curry made from a basic kroeung paste such as lemongrass, ginger finger root, turmeric, kaffir lime, garlic and fish paste.
Following the history of Cambodia, where the capital was in the north without access to the sea, it is made from river fish or catfish. Because of the short distance to Angkor Wat most fishes came from the Tonle Sap Lake – Asia biggest fresh water lake
Amok was one of the Royal Khmer dishes in the past. It dates back to the Khmer Empire during the 9th to 15th centuries under King Jayavarman II.
During the Khmer Rouge regime, war happened in 1970 and had killed 1.7 million people across Cambodia. After the fall of Khmer Rouge many cultural traditions have been lost. The country wanted to reinstate them, and food played an important role. Then amok was brought back on the table again. Despite, Cambodians do not eat amok very often, they usually enjoy it as a celebration dish for special occasions only.
Fish amok: how to cook it
If you want to learn how to make fish amok, you can follow the recipes below. But a much better choice is to learn it from a local. Our host Ms. Laum makes the propabley best fish amok in Siem Reap. She knows how to extract milk from coconut flesh (because she also makes delicious waffles form it), has her own noni tree right behind the house and cooks amok in a very traditional way she learned from her neighbors in the countryside decades ago.
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok Recipes
The home cooking version.
1. Make kroeung paste from lemongrass, ginger finger root, turmeric, kaffir lime slices (small and thin pieces) add some peeled garlic.
2. Slice catfish or river fish in medium pieces.
3. Soak dried red chili until soft and mince them well. Cambodian cuisine is less spicy, so if you are looking for a strong chili kick, just add a bit more.
4. Thinly slice the noni leaves (you can use kaffir lime leaves as well).
5. Once the kroeung paste is prepared, add some minced fish paste (BrorHok), minced chili and pound them together until well mixed, smooth and fine.
6. Coconut milk is one of the essential ingredients of amok. In the previous time people squeezing coconut flesh to get coconut milk. Nowadays, you can just get the ready one in a can.
7. Coconut milk and kroeung paste and noni leave are marinated together. Add some seasoning such as palm sugar and fish sauce depending on your taste. Add the fish in.
8. Once you have made your fish curry mix, you should spoon it into banana leaf basket.
9. Boiling the water in the pot, Steam amok in banana leaf basket for 20-30mins is well cooked, taste and serve immediately.
INGREDIENTS
– 100g noni leaves or kaffier lime leaves
– 1 kg Cat/River fish
– 1 Teaspoon fish paste
– 2 Teaspoon salt
– 200g Kroeung paste
– 1Teaspoon palm/white sugar
– 300ml coconut milk.
Authentic Cambodian Fish Amok Recipes Restaurant’s Cooked.
1. Sprinkle salt and pepper to both sides of the fish fillet.
2. Prepare mixed vegetables such as carrot, eggplants, potato, sweet potato, long beans.
3. Thinly slice the noni leaves or kaffir lime leaves.
4. Heat a large saucepan over medium high heat.
5. Stir kreung paste bought from the market until golden brown.
6. Add palm sugar, fish sauce, hard vegetables (the type of vegetable that takes longer to cook) and the fish. Cook and stir for 2mins and then add the coconut milk and water if necessary. Slimmer for a few minutes.
7. Half way through the cooking process add the remaining vegetables with noni leaves.
8. Once the amok is cooked, beat the egg in the bowl and add it in the amok.
9. Let it cook for a few more seconds. Add salt to the taste and serve in coconut fruit or banana leaf basket.
INGREDIENTS
– 300g mixed vegetables ( carrot, eggplant, potato, long bean..)
While slowly coming back, we already found two new host families to take part in the Dine With The Locals network of food adventures. An we can assure you great food and unforgettable experiences. Both families live in Siem Reap, both build new house, yet they look quite different. So are the experiences we always add to the adventure.
Food adventure and a fishing net
Learn how to throw a Cambodian fishing net
Mr. Chantry is a driver we know for quite a while. His wife Sokvy usually stays at home, cooks and takes care of the kids. She is ideal to join us, since out goal is to empower women and help them to get an additional income. Part of the food adventures is to cook Tek Kreung, made from cooked fish and roasted vegetables. A delight for mouth and eyes. After your meal Chantry will show you how to use the tradional Cambodian fishing net. Chantry will also pick you up and bring you back to your hotel in his rickshaw – a three wheeler replacing tuktuks in Cambodia now.
Lots of herbs and lovely gifts
Ms. Dary lives in the southern part of Siem Reap with her husband and two boys. She worked in a hotel before, and has a good eye for decoration as well as food. Her house is a more modern style, yet you will cook local food and eat – part of the food adventure – on the floor in a mat. But before you have to pick some ivy leaves and lemon form the tree. The food highlight is Nam Ban Chok, fresh rice noodles, eat with chicken and lots of herbs.
Folding a bracelet
Our first full vegetarian option food adventures
Since Ms. Dary is very experienced, she can offer all three dishes suitable for vegetarians. We will replace meat with tofu and mushrooms, and if you want, even don‘t use fish sauce (although its an important ingredient).
After your meal you will learn how to make gifts like bracelets or coasters from palm leaves – which you have to cut yourself just form the garden opposite the house.
You can book your food adventures with a local family on our website or send us a whats app message. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
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