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

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