There is no fire like passion, No crime like hatred, No sorrow like separation, No sickness like hunger, And no joy like the joy of freedom. Buddha Dhammapada.

The fragrance of sandalwood and rosebay, Does not travel far. But the fragrance of virtue, Rises to the heavens. Buddha Dhammapada.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Exotic, The Symbol Of Asia


 
Photo1: Lotus Flowers, Near An Ancient Bridge At Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia


Photo2: Exotic Flower, At Angkor Temple, Siem Reap, Cambodia


 
Photo3: Red Hot Chili At Local Market In Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Yummy Caramelized Pork (Khor Sach Chrok)

When you hear about 'Caramel', in your thoughts it must be a kind of sweet dessert but the Caramel here is a kind of food. Caramelized Pork is a very delicious Khmer food, and it's one of my favorite. We can cook with different kinds of meat such as: Beef, Fish or Pork, but Cambodian people like to cook by Pork, esp boneless pork thigh with fat and skin which gives fantastic taste.The way of cooking are same, but different period of cooking, short or long time is depended on how tender the meat. Recipe below I choose pork with little fat. This food can be served with steamed Rice or Bread up to favorite.

















Recipe for Two-Three persons: 
Ingredients: 800g of Pork, 1big size of Carrot (about 200g), 6cloves of Garlic, 4sp of Sugar, 2sp of Soy Sauce, 1tsp of Salt and 1/2tsp of Grind Pepper.

Method:
1. Cut Pork into cube pieces as in the picture, peel out skin of Carrot then cut into pieces, peel Garlic and chop each of Garlic into half.





















2. Heat up pot and put sugar in, make it caramel, then put chopped garlic in, cook it a bit in caramel. After that put pork, carrot, soy sauce and pepper mix them together into caramel, then cover.





































3. After 10minutes, open the cover and turn meat to other side to get caramel color on meat. Make sure to have some water enough in the pot, avoid burn. But usually when cook, the water come out from the meat if not, have to add small amount (about 150ml) of water in.
















4. Then cover and cook it with small flame about 30-45minutes to make meat become very soft & tender. After that put 1tsp of salt in, and cook about 15minutes more, then taste it...add extra salt or sugar up to your need and it's ready to serve.




















Serving: Add a bit of Coriander, Parsley or Spring Onion on the top if you like it.


Language Tip: English =) Khmer
Carrot = Karot
Caramel = Chhoeng, 
Cook = Chom In, Slor(often used)
Cut = Kat
Eat = Nyam
Delicious = Chha Nhanh
Garlic = Khtoem Sor
Like = Chol Chit
Peel = Bork
Pepper = Mar Rich
Pork = Sach Chrok
Soy Sauce = Toek Sa Iv
Salt = Om Berl
Slice = Chit
Spring Onion = Sloek Khtoem
Sugar = Skor Sor

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Stir-Fried Eggplant With Minced Meat (Chhar Trop)

Fried eggplant with minced meat is a common food for Cambodians. Usually, we first bake eggplant until it became very soft all part, and then peel out its skin before slice and take it to fry with minced meat. But here, I choose an easier and faster way for those who have no much time, and it's also delicious this way. I cook it this way most of the time, I rarely bake it. We can fry eggplant with different meats(pork, chicken, beef...sliced or minced meat..etc or without meat, up to favorite), it is served with steamed rice.


Recipe for One person:
Ingredients: 1 medium size eggplant, 150g of minced meat (Pork), 10g of spring onion, 4cloves of garlic, 2sp of oyster sauce, 2sp of oil, 1/2tsp of salt and 1tsp of sugar.



Method:
1. Peel the skin of eggplant and chop it as size of finger, chop garlic into small pieces, and cut spring onion as small pieces.




2. Heat up the frying pan, pure oil in. Then put the garlic and fry it till get good smell. After that fry minced meat with it for a while, then put oyster sauce, salt and sugar in. Stir it well together again before put sliced eggplants.

3. Put sliced eggplants in, then stir it a bit and cover it about 10minutes. Then  put it on a plate, and add spring onion that prepared on the top. It's ready to serve with steamed rice.


Language Tip: English =) Khmer
Chop = Pus
Eat = Nyam
Eggplant = Plaer Trop
Garlic = Khtoem Sor
Fry = Chhar
Oil = Preng Chhar
Minced Meat = Sat Chenh Chram
Peel = Bork
Pork = Sach Chrok
Salt = Om Berl
Slice = Chhit
Spring Onion = Sloek Khtoem
Sugar = Skor Sor

Thursday, January 20, 2011

How To Cook Steamed Rice In Pot? (Dam Baii)

As we know, Asian people eat rice every day, so cooking steamed rice we know it by heart (we are rice addicted). Rice is the core of Asian dishes, we can see most of the foods are served with rice. There are many different ways of cooking rice but the instruction that I'm going to show, it's from my experience that I learnt since I was child. You can cook steamed rice by pot (avoid burn, using Teflon pot is the best, but we also can cook in simple pot), if you don't have rice cooker. There are many kinds of rice, but the most well known and delicious one is Jasmine Rice.

Recipe for Two persons: cup size is 3dl, 1cup of Jasmine Rice and 1+1/2 cup of water.






















Method:
1. Put 1cup of rice into a Teflon pot, clean and rinse it with water twice.
2. Add 1 + 1/2 cup of water into the pot.
3. Cover the pot and cook it on gas stove until boil, keep boiling till water gone.
4. Lower gas flame to the smallest and simmer it for 15 minutes, and then it's ready to serve.
























Language Tip: English =) Khmer
Cook = Chom In, Slor(often used, Cook Rice = Dam Baii
Pot = Chhnang
Rice = Angkor(raw), Baii(cooked), Srov(has skin)
Water = Toek

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Stir-Fried Chicken With Ginger (Chhar Knhei Sach Marnn)

This is one of my favorite food. I got recipe from my father who is very good at cooking (he's not a cook but loved cooking though his real profession's engineering); as I remember, I was 9 years old at that time. This recipe has always reminded me of my childhood (the time I was my dad's assistant in our small lovely kitchen, listened to the nice music from an old radio while cooking, during 90s what music that we often heard playing on radio are the music of 60s and those are real music not like now). I believe there are so many things that passed already but are still the nice memories which always stay with us anytime and anywhere, and the importance it makes us happy again whenever we think of it. It's simple but delicious for sure. 

Recipe for Two persons:
Ingredients: 100g of  Ginger (choose the young one), 10g of Spring Onion, 500g of Chicken breast, 5cloves of Garlic, 5sp of Oil, 1tsp of Salt, and 2tsp of Sugar.

 
Method: 
1. Slice Chicken breast into pieces as size of Basil leaf,  not too thick or thin. Peel out the skin of Ginger then slice it into small pieces and very thin (strips). Cut Spring Onion into pieces (3cm long), & mince the garlic.


2. Heat up frying pan then pure the oil that you prepared in, after the oil hot put the minced garlic in for 10 seconds then put ginger strips and fry it together till become a bit light brown color to have nice smell (not too brown, otherwise it will have bitter burnt taste). Then put chicken in and stir it well, after that cover for 5 minutes.  

3. Start to put salt and sugar in, and stir it for awhile then taste weather it's sweet and salted as you want or not (add extra salt or sugar up to you flavor). And last, put the spring onion in and mix it well  for a second then ready to serve.

Note: This food is served with steamed rice (recommended, Jusmine rice).

Language Tip: English =) Khmer 

Chicken = Sach Marnn
Chop = Pus
Garlic = Khtoem Sor
Ginger = Knhei
Fry = Chhar
Oil = Preng Chhar
Peel = Bork
Salt = Om Berl
Sugar = Skor Sor
Slice = Chit
Spring Onion = Sloek Khtoem

Monday, January 17, 2011

Stir-Fried Vegetable (Chhar Bonlaer)

















It's fast and easy, take only 10minutes to be done, what you need to have is:

Recipe for One-Two persons:
Vegetable: 1 medium size green/red/yellow Capsicum (in the pic it's a bit big as I could not find medium size, Cambodians like to use green capsicum than red or yellow), 1 green Zucchini, 1 Carrot, 1 Onion and 3 cloves of Garlic.
Ingredients: 3sp of oyster sauce, 1sp of soy sauce, 2sp of oil, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2tsp of sugar.




















Method:
1. Peel and chop Garlic into small pieces, cut the Capsicum, Zucchini, Carrot and Onion as size of finger.


















2. Heat up frying pan then pure oil in, when the oil is hot put chopped garlic into the oil, fry until it gives good smell then put all the sliced vegetables in. Stir it well together and cover for 5 minutes.

3. Open the cover, then put oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and sugar in, and mix it up. Stir it for 2 minutes then taste it, if the taste not reach your favorite yet, add extra salt or sugar up to your need.
















Note: It's served with steamed rice.

Language Tip: English =) Khmer
Capsicum = Mates Plouk
Carrot = Karot
Cut = Kat
Fry = Chhar
Garlic = Khtoem Sor
Oil = Preng Chhar
Onion = Khtoem Barang
Peel = Bork
Salt = Om Berl
Slice = Chit
Soy Sauce = Toek Sa Iv
Sugar = Skor Sor
Vegetable = Bonlaer
Zucchini = Nornoung Barang 

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Some Unused Ingredients In My Recipes

In my cooking recipes, there are some ingredients that I don't use but locals like to use it, such as fish sauce (Toek Trei), fish paste (Pro Hok), and MSG (Bie Cheng). Fish sauce and fish paste are always important ingredients for many kinds of Khmer foods. Those are Khmer's taste, sometime if we don't use it we miss the real flavour. We have a saying that Cambodians like Pro Hok as same as Barangs (French) like the Blue Cheese.
I don't use those ingredients since it's related to my health problem & I just try to eat healthy way as possible as I can. Although I don't use them for cooking, I found that the foods are still delicious. So it's not a big deal to give up those few ingredients for the healthy diet. 

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The Asian Diary

I am Sophie, my profession is accounting. Cooking is one of my hobby, I have a passion for food which explains why I love cooking and experiment new things. 
My purpose of writing The Asian Diary Blog is not only for hobbies but to share my cooking knowledge either to reveal Khmer recipes. 
Widely, people often hear about Chinese, Thai or Vietnamese Food. Khmer food is like Thai food but not so spicy (use less chili). However basically Khmer dishes are very similar to neighboring dishes, there are still some local dishes that distinguish.

In my blog, you will find out Khmer recipes throughout my cooking experience. 
Most mentioned recipes here are very simple and easy to prepare, it takes short time to cook, ingredients are easy to find, and the tastes are exotically delicious.
Thanks for visiting my blog and help to spread out Khmer recipes. 
Pls follow The Asian Diary on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook. I also write another blog Half Clove Garlic