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

The Asian Diary's Spring Photos

Photos are taken at Varosliget Park, Budapest. I love the Spring and enjoy seeing blossom flowers, esp Cherry blossom!

Stir-Fried Broccoli With Beef (Chhar Phkar Khat Na Khiev Sach Ko)

Today I went to a grocery store for some tomatoes to cook Hungarian Lecso/Lachow (a very popular Hungarian food and delicious, I love it), but suddenly I saw some fresh broccoli which changed my mind not to cook the Hungarian food for lunch but Khmer food, stir-fried broccoli with beef. So here again simple, fast and good taste! Let’s try this recipe and let me know how you like it..

Recipe for Two Persons:
Ingredients: 250g of Beef, 500g of Broccoli, 4cloves of Garlic, 3sp of Oil, 2sp of Soy Sauce, 1/2tsp of Salt, and1tsp of Sugar.

Method:
1. Slice beef into small piece and thin. Peel out the skin of Broccoli and cut into small piece as size of your thumb. Peel out garlic and chop it into very small piece.

2. Heat up frying pan, pure oil in. Then put chopped garlic to fry it till get nice smell. After that put sliced beef and fry 30 seconds, then start to put soy sauce, salt and sugar in (if you like spicy, you can add chopped hot chili or 1/3tsp ground pepper in as most of recipes are not spicy). Stir them well then cover for 5minutes.

3. After 5minutes, open the cover to stir them well again and add 50ml of water if it’s so dry then cover for other 3minutes. Then it’s ready to serve with steamed rice or as the way you like.

Language Tip: English =) Khmer

Beef = Sach Ko

Broccoli = Phka Khat Na Khiev

Garlic = Khtoem Sor

Fry = Chhar

Oil = Preng Chhar

Peel = Bork

Salt = Om Berl

Slice = Chit

Soy Sauce = Toek Sa Iv 

Sugar = Skor Sor

Khmer Beef Lok Lak...ChikChak & Great Taste! (Chhar Lok Lak Sach Ko)

Have you ever heard about Lok Lak? In Khmer language this food is Chik-Chak, something that we say it is easy and quick (I just found that in Hebrew Chik-Chak means ‘quickly’ same like Khmer). If you have been to Cambodia, probably you have heard about this food.

Lok Lak is one of the most favorite foods for Cambodians; it’s just as popular as Fried Rice or Noodle. But it is often cooked at the time when there is a family meeting, party or weekend. By local tradition, this food is popularly eaten by using fingers, and it is served in a big plat which everybody could share this dish together. This way of eating makes entire families enjoy Lok Lak slowly along with chatting, and brings such a great time.

Anyway, in restaurant now they serve Lok Lak in an individual portion, and with spoon and fork. Below I will show how we eat Lok Lak by using fingers.

Recipe for One Person:

Ingredients: 250g of Beef Tenderloin, 3cloves of Garlic, and half of small onion

Dressing: 1/2sp of fresh Lime or Lemon Juice, 2sp of hot water, 1cloves of Garlic, 1/2tsp of Salt, ½ tsp of Ground Pepper.

Vegetables to serve with: 1medium size of Tomato, and Iceberg Lettuce (use different kind of lettuce up to favorite like Romaine, Red or Green Oak Leaf, Lollo, Frisee, Or Mixed Salad – but I like Iceberg as it’s sweet and crisp, but local Cambodians usually use Khmer lettuce which looks similar to green Oak Leaf or Lollo lettuce).

Method:

1. Slice Tomato very thin after that prepare it with iceberg salad on a plate.

2. Prepare Dressing (Pepper Sauce): Peel out the 1 cloves of garlic and chop them into very small pieces or smash, then put into a small bowl. After that mix salt, pepper, lime/lemon juice, and water in. Mix them well together. Keep it to serve.

3. Frying the Beef: 

1. Slice the beef tenderloin very thin into pieces and the same way slice onion very thin. Then peel out the 3cloves of garlic and chop into very small pieces.
2. Heat up the frying pan, pure the oil in. Then put chopped garlic in and fry it to get nice smell. After that put sliced beefs and stir it about 30seconds (medium cooked), then put sliced onion it and stir it well for 2-3 seconds.
3. After that take it out to put on the plat that prepared salad and tomato already, then ready to serve with steamed rice (Lok Lak is served with fried potato too for modern style)

The way of eating:

 

1. Take a piece of Iceberg to wrap a piece of sliced tomato and a few sliced beefs 
2. Then dip it into dressing (Pepper Sauce)
3. With one bit of Lok Lak, then one bit of steamed rice

Hmm, can't wait....

Language Tip: English =) Khmer

Beef = Sach Ko

Cook = Chom In, Slor(often used)

Dressing = Toek Chro Louk

Garlic = Khtoem Sor

Fry = Chhar 

Hot = Kdao

Lime = Kroch Chmar

Oil = Preng Chhar

Onion = Khtoem Barang

Pepper = Mar Rich

Salt = Om Berl 

Salad/Lettuce = Salad 

Slice = Chit , Han

Tomato = Peng Pors

Water = Toek

Delicious Khmer Fried Rice With Shrimp (Chhar Baii)

Fried rice is a popular food of Asian dishes. In Cambodia, fried rice is not only fond of by tourists but also locals as it's truly delicious in many ways of cooking. Fried rice can be a breakfast or lunch for Cambodian. It is made by steamed rice that cooked already or leftover rice. When I was young, my mum often made fried rice for breakfast because she used the leftover steamed rice from the last evening. Recipe of fried rice are varieties, we can cook with different meats, vegetables and ingredients. Cambodians like to use fish sauce for cooking, so fish sauce is an important ingredient for local fried rice recipe. But in my recipe, fish sauce is not used Read.

Recipes for Two persons:

Ingredients: 100g of Skinless Shrimp (small or big shrimp up to favorite), 2Eggs, 1small size of Carrot, 150g of Broccoli, 6pieces of White Baby Mushroom, 4cloves of Garlic, a few leaves of Spring Onion, 4sp of Oil, 2sp of Oyster Sauce, 1sp of Soy Sauce, 2tsp of Sugar, 1/2tsp of Salt, 1/4tsp of ground Pepper (use chopped red hot chili, if you prefer it very spicy), and 2potions of steamed rice.

So what you need to do first is: Cook 1cup of Jasmine Rice or Long Grain Rice 'A quality'. If you don't have rice cooker, please check my instructions of cooking steamed rice by pot See.

Method:
1. Peel out the skin of carrot and garlic, then cut them into small pieces. Cut spring onion the same way like carrot and garlic. Chop each baby mushroom into 4, and take out the skin of broccoli then cut it small pieces.

2. Heat up the frying pan. Pure the oil in, then put chopped garlic into hot oil, fry it until get good smell. Then put chopped carrot and spring onion in, fry for 30seconds.
 
3. After that, break eggs and put in, stir-fry for a while till it's separated well. Then put skinless shrimps and fry them together about 2-3 minutes. Later put salt, sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce and ground pepper, then stir and mix them well for 10seconds. After that, put chopped mushrooms and broccoli in, and fried around 3-4 minutes.

4. Last, put the steamed rice that you cooked already in, stir and mix them well together about 1minute, then it's ready to serve.

Note: You can add extra chili, a small piece of lime/lemon, or some parsley/coriander leaves on the top for serving.

Language Tip: English =) Khmer

Brocoli = Phkar Khat Na Khiev

Carrot = Karot

Chili = Ma Tes

Chop = Pus

Cut = Kat

Eat = Nyam

Egg = Pong Mann

Delicious = Cha Nhanh

Garlic = Khtoem Sor

Fry = Chhar

Mushroom = Pshit

Oyster Sauce = Preng Kchorng

Peel = Bork

Pepper = Mar Rich

Rice = Ang kor (raw), Baii(cooked), Srov(with skin)

Salt = Om Berl

Shrimp = Boeng Kear

Soy Sauce = Toek Sa Iv

Spring Onion = Khtoem Barang

Sugar = Skor Sor

Fried Rice = Chhar Baii

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. 

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. 
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