Here I am with the "master chef" Sinuon who was my guide for the day! 1/2 day I shared her with two lovely girls from London and the second 1/2 of the day was a one on one lesson!! Incredible day!
Four course menu coming right up!
First course: Veggie Spring Rolls with sweet and sour dipping sauce
Final product!
Dipping sauce: crush 2 cloves of garlic, 1 fresh red chili and 2 tbsp sugar with mortar and pestle. Place in separate bowl. Add 1 tbsp fish sauce, 4 tbsp water and juice of 1 lime and mix. Add 1 clove minced shallot and keeping on pounding. Lastly, top with diced/crushed peanuts. (serves 2) keeps in fridge 1-2 weeks so best to make more!
Second: Traditional fish soup
Very easy, extremely popular and a a great dish to cook as a beginner.
Begin with boiling water add 2 or 3 sliced lemon grass stalks, crushed inch of galangal and 3 keffir lime leaves. Also 1 tbsp of white rice. This adds the white color to the soup Boil for a few minutes. Add fish cubes and 1 tsp of salt. Continue to boil covered. Next add 1 tbsp of fish sauce. Continue boiling. Then add squid and prawns (cook 1-2 min) .
Add at the end chopped saw mint, basil, chilli and one stalk spring onions. Place them in the bottom of a bowl and hot soup is dished onto of them. Greens wilt with the hot broth.
Final product: squeeze some fresh lime juice on top and serve with fish suave and chilies. Eat around the lemongrass, galangal and keffir leaves.These are just for flavoring. And if you are me, I also ate around the shellfish but you all can enjoy it :)
Third: Amok fish. A very very common traditional Cambodian dish served at many restaurants. I was most excited to learn how to cook this dish because so many of us have enjoyed this dish throughout our time here.
Started out pounding 1 stalk thinly sliced lemongrass, an inch of fresh tumeric and a slice of the skin of keffir lime in a mortar. Next we diced 2 shallots and 1 garlic clove and kept on mashing. (this is for a single serving)
Should look like this
Next add mashed chillies. (originally dried and then soaked in water for a mushy consistency). Add 1 tsp each of sugar and shrimp paste. Last add a few peanuts and keep on mashing.
Should look like this
Next add 1/2 cup coconut milk and 1 tsp fish sauce. Stir. Add diced fish to mixture. Let marinate 5 minutes or so.
Place in a pot that you can cook/steam in. Add a bit more coconut milk and garnish with sliced chilies and keffir leaves. Steam for 15 minutes.
Final product: (drum roll please)
Fourth: dessert. Fried bananas. Not my preference but why not learn a new dish. I didn't include the recipe because I really prefer to share healthy dishes (yes, I am the health food enthusiast) so feel free to email me if you want details. :) nonetheless here is a picture to complete my days work of cooking cambodian food!
A few side notes to share:
Below is fresh turmeric. How beautiful is that!! Bright orange! This root is extremely good for you as it is one of the strongest natural anti-inflammatories.
A bowl of water with lime was placed on the kitchen counter to wash our hands. It is used to get the smell of fish and garlic off our hands. Good idea!
What a perfect day! My belly is stuffed, my brain is full of new knowledge to share and create, and I now have goodie bags of leftovers to share with my new friends. Life is amazing!
Click on this picture below for more pics!
I love the pics of you "in action" cooking... and that market was AMAZING! I wish you could send SMELLS of the spices and veggies through the internet!
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