The Cambodian Amok Fish Recipe

Cambodian food is a charming combination of strong and vibrant flavors. Cambodians like to make sure that there is a little of the salty, the sour, the sweet and the bitter in every meal.

Khmer cuisine is gaining interest in many countries, with some people forecasting that it will become the New Thai, i.e. the next cuisine from the Southeast Asia region to enchant the world. It is, in fact, quite similar to Thai food but without the spiciness.

Ingredients:

400 g firm white fish (ling, monkfish, even salmon works but is less traditional) Cut into bite size chunks

1/2 cup coconut cream
2 cups coconut milk
1 egg (beaten)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
3 tablespoon kaffir lime leaves (sliced thinly)
2-3 long red chilli peppers (seeded & thinly sliced)
300 g kale or collard greens or cabbage leaves (combined with 1 tablespoon lemongrass)

The Amok Paste:
2 dried red chilies (soaked and drained)
3 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tablespoon fresh galangal (chopped) (use fresh ginger as an alternative)
1 tbsp lemon grass stalk
1 teaspoon lime zest
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shrimp paste

Directions:
To make the paste, blend all the paste ingredients smoothly in a food processor or with a hand blender. Combine the paste with 1 cup of coconut milk. When dissolved, stir in the remaining coconut milk, egg, fish sauce and fish.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Take off any stems from the kale and cut into large pieces and make a thin layer in the bottom of 4 ramekins. Spoon in the fish mixture and cover with another leaf. Cover each ramekin tightly in foil and place on a roasting tin. Pour in 1 inch of boiling water to the tin and carefully place in the oven. Steam for 20-25 minutes until the fish is cooked and quite solid.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

I finally got to visit Siem Reap with my friends, Ernie and Lulu Kamatoy , Roland and Maribel Sunga from Los Angeles, CA. We were lucky to arrive on the eve of the King's Birthday. They were on a 2 day holiday. I found out that cambodian food is coconut milk based, not spicy although most of their stuff were similar to the Thai food. You must try their Khmer Amok Fish which is very famous and their KARI.

They recommended another cambodian dish called TREY BOM POONG but it was already finished when we ordered it. We had our first taste of cambodian cooking in a restaurant cum bar called DEAD FISH.

Our first stop was to see ANGKOR WAT, the world's largest religious monument. It took us the almost 5 hours just to walk thru the whole place.

For lunch we dined in a restaurant near Angkor Wat called SOMOS SRAS SRANG. They served local khmer food.

In the afternoon we went back to the hotel to change clothes and walked to the river to watch the river boat race. While waiting for the boat race to start we went around the area and sampled all the food they were selling.

That evening we were able to go and see a cultural show. I noticed that some of their dances were very similar to our folk dance here. Like the " maglalatik dance " and they had their own version of the " tinikling " . But their movements were much slower and they put more emphasis on their hands and head movement.