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

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

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

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

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