My homemade Gyros!

Have been so busy with work, but now found a bit free time to put a post. Today I went off to Józsefvárosi Piac (one of the open-air makerts & known as the biggest Asain flee market in Budapest) and bought 10 pieces of fresh pita bread from a Turkey shop to make my own homemade Gyros, everyone in the family liked it very much and it's such a great dinner, followed by sweet photatos as dessert last! 

Sorry! this time could not decribe in details but I will update the complete recipe of this homemade Gyros next time as I have been so lazy lately. 

My yummy homemade Gyros

Ingredient for Salad: shredded veggies (carrot, cabbage, lettuce, tomato, purple onion, garlic,) lime juice, salt, sugar, sour-cream

My homemade salad before putting sour-cream, and accidently my finger got abit cut after shredded this veggies ;(

Salad in sour-cream is ready to fill up the pita bread with fried meat (no time to grill)

Fresh pita breads

Fresh Pita Breads, hmmmm

Fresh Pita Bread

The ready Gyros, so yummy... 

The yummy homemade Gyros is ready to serve 

My next post will be Stir-fried Morning Glory (Asian water spinaach)! :)

My front garden started to blossom and colorful!

Fresh Spring Roll With Bacon (Kourng Sarch Chrok Bei Join)

Most of the time we make Fresh Spring Rolls with Shrimps but with my recipe will show you how to make spring rolls with Bacon. Spring rolls are a part time meal for Cambodian people between lunch and dinner. And usually we don't make our own spring rolls because Khmer family is big so to make a lot of spring roll for a whole family member might take time. So for us, the easy way we just buy ready-made-spring rolls from the seller as much as we need (the price is cheap, we do not need to spend time sitting to wrap & roll, and not only for spring rolls we buy from the market/sellers but all kinds of part time meal/snack). One person probably eats up to 4 or 6 spring rolls, and of course it doesn't keep you full for long time. But when we live abroad, we really should make our own homemade spring rolls if we would like to eat (the cheapest way). Recipe below will also show how to make sweet-and-sour dressing which is necessary to serve with spring rolls. By the recipe here you also can make vegetarian spring rolls, just don't use bacon.

Recipe for One Portion:

Prepare the Dressing: 

Ingredients: 1Garlic Clove (minced), 1/2sp of sliced Carrot, 1sp of Peanut (smashed), 1Red Hot Chili (chopped), 50ml of warm Water, 1sp of fresh Lemon Juice, 4tsp of Sugar, 1+1/2tsp of Salt.

Method: Put all the ingredients together and mix well, the tasted must be Sweet-and-Sour. Keep it to serve with Spring Roll.

Prepare the Spring Roll:

Ingredients: 6pieces of Rice Paper, 3slices of Bacon, 3layers of Lettuce, 1/2Carrot (10cm long need), 1/3Cucumber (10cm long need), 18 leaves of Asian Basil, 1cup of Bean Sprouts. Wash and clean vegetble very well before use. (Recommend: for bean sprouts should clean with water 2-3 times and then keep in water for 5minutes before use).

Method:

1. Cut sliced bacon into half (make 3slices become 6pieces), and take them to fry about 1minute for little brown color but don’t fry till crispy (See pictue). Cut lettuce into half the same way as bacon (makes 3layers become 6pieces). 
   
   
   

   
   

Peel carrot and slice into thin and long piece about 10cm length. Cucumber are peeled and sliced as same as carrot but can be a bit thicker and keep 10cm long the same.

2. How to wrap:

1. Take 1Rice paper deep in water for 6seconds till it soft little bit for wrapping. 

2. Take Rice paper out from water and put on a plate. After that put one sliced bacon in middle of the Rice paper, and then put a few sliced of carrot and cucumber, some bean sprouts, 3leaves of basil and one piece of lettuce.

3. Start to wrap from rolling it up one side to the middle, then wrap lelf and right together and after that roll it up to the end. See the pictures below.

      4. Do and wrap it one by one in the same way for the rest. 

Language Tip = English =) Khmer

Bacon = Sarch Chrok Bei Join

Carrot = Karrot

Cucumber = Tro Sak

Shrimp = Beung Kea

Sour = Cho

Spring Roll = Kourng

Sweet = Pha Em

Wrap = Kha Chob

Khmer Chicken Curry (Curry Sarch Mann)

There are many kinds of curry and it makes little different taste by different countries.We know that curry is originally from India, and by the culture influence, the curry has become one of our Khmer national dishes and since then it was adapted by other countries in the same region. Khmer curry might be not exactly same like Indian curry but more closer to Thai curry. For Cambodians, curry is a very special food and is cooked only for special event or occasion only, for example on Khmer New Year, Pchum Ben or a special day. And by the traditional and local way, to cook curry takes longer time as we have to make our own fresh curry paste from fresh Lemongrass, Turmeric, Kaffir Lime leaf, Garlic, Shallot…etc before cooking, even such peanuts are used in the curry paste as well (I remember when my mother told me to grind and mix all those lemongrass, turmeric…with our heavy stone mortar & pestle; I was very lazy to do it as it took like 30minutes to get all of them ground & mixed well together, and when finished my hands were yellow color - it took a few days to get the color gone from my hands). We even have to make and take the milk from the coconut. So it’s a long process to get all done. And we never cook for a few portions but with a big pot which could serve 10people or enough to eat for 2-3days. This is a story of curry from my experience. But since there is ready-made-curry-paste is available, I never want to think of making my own paste anymore. Curry can be cooked with many kinds of meat such as beef, chicken or pork. But the fast recipe is chicken because chicken is tender, - no need to cook longer time like beef or pork. And as I have mentioned in my note that I don’t use fish sauce in my recipe while the local taste needs to use fish sauce and shrimp paste extra for cooking; however, you will find out that it’s also great and delicious without using stinky fish sauce and shrimp paste even more healthier for sure.

Recipe for One Portion:

Ingredients: 200g of Chicken thigh boneless and skinless (or chicken breast), 1 mid size of Potato, 1 mid size of Onion, 1/2of mid size of Eggplant, 400ml of Coconut Milk, 100ml of Low Fat Milk, 2sp of Oil, 1sp of Red Curry Paste, 2 + ½ tsp of Sugar and 1 + ½ tsp of Salt.

Method: 

1. Slice chicken into small pieces, peel and chop potato and onion into small pieces. Chop eggplant into small pieces as in the picture, do not need to peel the skin.

2. Heat up pot and pure oil then put red curry paste to fry for 1minute. After that put chicken to fry for another 1minute. Then pure coconut milk, low fat milk and chopped potato in and mix them well together, after that cover and cook for 5minutes.

3. After 5minutes, open and start to put sugar and salt in. Stir it well little bit, then put chopped onion and eggplant. Cover and cook around 10minutes. Add extra salt or sugar up to favorite, then ready to serve with Steamed Rice.

Note: Red Curry Paste is spicy so do not need to put extra red chili.

Language Tip = English =) Khmer

Chicken = Sarch Mann

Coconut = Dong

Coconut Milk = Kti Dong

Delicious = Chha nanh

Lemon Grass = Sleuk Krie

Milk = Teuk Dess Ko

Special = Pi Sess

Stinky = Sar Ouy

Stir-Fried Corn Local Style (Poat Chhar)

Back to my local taste after a while of enjoying nice summer weather and great taste of Hungarian dishes. Fried corn, it's very simple and sort of local Khmer's taste. Most of the time we hear about corn is: Pop Corn, Steamed Corn and Grilled Corn. But now what I am going to show is 'Stir-fried Corn', the preparation is very fast and easy, grab a can of sweet corn, a few leaves of spring onion and a couple of garlic-cloves that's all. 

Recipe for One Person: 

Ingredients: 1Can of Sweet Corn, a few leaves of Spring Onions, 2cloves of Garlic, 2sp of Oil.

Method:

1. Open the can of sweet corn, take only the corn, pure out the soupy part. Peel garlic and chop/mince into small pieces. Cut spring onion also into small pieces.

2. Heat up frying pen, pure the oil in then put minced garlic, fry it a little bit about half minute before putting spring onion in, and then fry around 1minute till get nice smell.

3. Start to put sweet corn in, and take it to fry for 2minutes till a bit dry, after that put little of salt in (if need) mix it well then ready to serve.

Note: This fried corn is served as a snack. 

Language Tip: English =) Khmer

Big = Thom
Corn = Poat 

Frying pen = Ktas Chha

Heat up = Kom Doav 

Small = Toch

Sweet = Phaem

Salty = Prai

Glass Noodle Salad With Chicken Breast (Nhoam Me Soor Sach Mann)

Glass noodle salad is one of the main food that considered as a lunch or dinner for Cambodians. We love it as much as other kinds of salad. The preparation doesn't take much longer than preparing the vegetable salad, just a few more minutes to cook chicken breast and soften the glass noodle but the methods are same. Different vegetables and meat are used depending on favorite, but to be a real Khmer glass noodle salad - Khmer/Asian basil, bean sprouts and fish sauce are mainly used, and by the local flavor we usually use bacon rather than chicken breast. However, the recipe here is invented by my own favorite and up to where i am now, i create it by using the vegetables that are easy to find. As i mentioned previously, we can make salad from available veggies that we have in our kitchen, make it easy (not complicate)... the delicious foods are depended on the cook and to be a good cook must know how to create a food from what we have, so try and let's see how it works for you! 

Recipe for Two Persons:
Ingredients: A small pack of Glass Noodle (80g or 100g depends on the pack size), 200g of Chicken Breast, 1/2 Tomato, 1/2 Carrot, 1/2 of a green spicy Paprika, 100g of Iceberg Salad, 50g of Cabbage, 1/4 of a Purple Onion (or 2cloves of Shallot), 2cloves of Garlic, 2sp of fresh Lemon or Lime juice, 1/2sp of Sugar, and 2tsp of Salt.
Method: 
1. Peel and slice carrot, tomato, paprika, iceberg, cabbage and purple onion into very thin and small pieces. Peel and chop garlic into very small pieces, and smash the peanuts a little bit.
2. Put glass noodle in hot water and bring to boil for 3minutes, then rinse out with cool water and keep to use. And steam chicken breast in pot, make sure well done. Then slice chicken breast into pieces of finger size.
3. After all, start to put all veggies, chopped garlic, smashed peanut, glass noodle and chicken breast that prepared already mix them well together with lemon juice, sugar and salt. Then taste it whether sweet-sour and salty enough up to favorite.

Note: If you don't like peanut do not use it, but i suggest to use to bring great taste, and if you love basil (few leaves) and bean sprout (100g) use them for your ingredients. And don't forget your chop sticks to serve if you like, but for Cambodians we use fork and spoon :)
Language Tip: English =) Khmer
Glass Noodle = Me Soor
Chicken = Sach Mann
Make Salad = Nhoam
Tomato = Peng Pors
Carrot = Karrot
Slice = Jit (J pronounces like joy)
Peel = Bork 
Mix = Chro Bal, Nhoam
Sweet = Pha aem
Sour = Jou (J is pronounced like joy)
Salty = Prai 

Mixed Vegetable Salad With Peanut (Nhaom Bonlae)

It's been for awhile, now get back to my favorite salad recipe. This salad is made from available veggies in my kitchen. You can make Khmer salad from different veggies that you like in the same method I explain below. For example, the main ingredient for this salad is Iceberg and Cabbage but you can use Green Papaya to make Papaya salad and Mango to make Mango Salad. You even can use Cashew nut instead of Peanut. One thing is that I make salad from veggies that is easy to find in my place, it might not be easy to find papaya or mango in Budapest and it even costs more. So there are many kind of Khmer or Asian Salad made in same method. Next post I will show recipe of Glass Noodle Salad which you will see how many same ingredients are used.

Recipe for One Portion:

Ingredients: 1small size of Carrot, 1small size of Tomato, half of a green spicy Paprika, 150g of Iceberg lettuce, 100g of Cabbage, 1/4 of a purple Onion (or 2cloves of Shallot), 2cloves of Garlic, 1sp of fresh Lemon juice, 50g of Peanut, 4tsp of Sugar, 1+1/2tsp of Salt.
Method:

1. Peel and slice carrot, tomato, paprika, iceberg, cabbage and purple onion into very thin and small pieces. Peel and chop garlic into very small pieces. Smash the peanuts a little bit.

2. Then put all veggies together and mix them well with lemon juice, chopped garlic, smashed peanut, sugar and salt. After that serve it on a plate.

Note: You can add extra chili or basil on the top it will give more intensive taste.

Language Tip: English =) Khmer
Vegetable = Bonlae
Make Salad = Nhaom
Peanut = San Dek Dei
Cabbage = Spei Kdoub