I didn’t get a chance to visit Sihanoukville during my first Wok Around Asia jaunt, but I had the opportunity to taste one of its well-known dishes, Sihanoukville Cuttlefish, at Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort’s Lok Lak Restaurant. This recipe is courtesy of Chef Chanrith Van, who’s one of the most talented Khmer chefs on the scene today, and it is amazing.

By the way, I’ve since attempted this during one of my Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts (I’ll post about it separately later) and even minus some of the local ingredients, eg. the kampot peppercorns and edible flowers, it tasted fantastic, so don’t let that put you off from attempting this at home using what you can find here in Australia.

Here’s the video on how it’s made, followed by the full recipe below >>

Sihanoukville Cuttlefish

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cuttlefish, about 180g each
2 TBSP pepper & lemongrass marinade
1 TBSP olive oil
2 TBSP Koh Kong Dressing
1 ea red radish, shaved
10 g fresh green Kampot peppercorn
1 TBSP pumpkin puree
5g red, yellow, pink needle flower
1 TBSP crushed peanuts

METHOD:

1. Clean cuttlefish and remove heads. Score the cuttlefish on one side, and skewer with bamboo sticks along the length of the other side.
2. Marinate with pepper & lemongrass mix for 10 minutes.
3. Heat the wok until smoking hot, then sear the cuttlefish until a nice golden colour.
4. Remove bamboo skewers and cut the cuttlefish tubes into 3 pieces each.
5. Smear plate with 1 TBSP pumpkin puree.
6. Arrange cuttlefish on top, then spoon 1 TBSP Koh Kong dressing over them.
7. Garnish with flowers, radish and crushed peanuts, then serve.

Pumpkin Puree

INGREDIENTS:

30g olive oil
580g pumpkin
1 ¼ TBS fine salt
450ml water
1 ¼ TBS sugar

METHOD:

1. Peel and cut the pumpkin into thin slices.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan, then add the pumpkin and cook until soft.
3. Add salt, sugar and water and bring to a boil.
4. Transfer to a blender and blend until soft, then pass through a sieve.
5. Allow to cool, then store in refrigerator until use.

Pepper & Lemongrass Marinade

INGREDIENTS:

1 tsp crushed black pepper
20g green kampot pepper, crushed (or replace with black peppercorns)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2g lemongrass, chopped
¼ tsp red hot chili, julienned
1 kaffir lime leaf, julienned
30ml extra virgin olive oil (or any kind of cooking oil)
½ tsp fine salt

METHOD:

1. Combine all ingredients. This marinade is suitable for seafood, beef or chicken.

Koh Kong Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

70g red large chillies, deseeded, chopped
7 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bird’s eye chili, chopped
80g white sugar
20ml white vinegar
70ml fish sauce
46ml fresh lime juice
40g sweet chili sauce
3g fine salt

METHOD:

1. Pound chillies and garlic into a rough paste with a mortar and pestle.
2. Add all the other ingredients, mix well, then transfer into a bowl.

My Wok Around Asia Siem Reap trip was made possible through the support of the following –

The post How to Cook Sihanoukville Cuttlefish first appeared on Jackie M..

I can legitimately say that I’ve never looked at an ant (red or otherwise) and wondered what it would taste like. Nonetheless, I wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to try it during my visit to Siem Reap, where it was served as part of a carpaccio-like rare beef salad.

Check out the video, which includes Chef Chanrith Van’s explanation of the use of red ants in Cambodian cooking >>

Khmer Red Ant Beef Salad

INGREDIENTS:

100g aged beef or eye fillet
¼ tsp fresh black peppercorns
1 pinch salt
1 cup olive oil (alt – corn oil, sunflower oil)
50g finely julienned kailan (Chinese broccoli) stem, soaked in ice water
5g pennywort leaves
5g watercress
10g red ants, fried
2 Tbsp Koh Kong dressing
10g red, yellow, pink needle flower

METHOD:

1. Season beef with salt for 5 minutes.
2. Heat 1 tsp oil to very high heat and sear quickly on both sides to rare. Rest beef for 5 minutes.
3. Clean wok, add oil and heat to 170C. Fry red ants until crispy.
4. Remove ants and drain on paper towels.
5. Clean wok, add oil and heat to very high temperature again; return beef to wok and sear to medium rare. Set aside.
6. Remove kailan from iced water and pat dry on paper towels.
7. Slice beef very thinly (carpaccio-style) and arrange on plate.
8. Top with one tablespoon of koh kong sauce.
9. Toss kailan with another tablespoon of sauce, then arrange on the middle of the plate.
10. Garnish with flowers, pennywort and watercress.
11. Sprinkle with crispy red ant, then serve.

Koh Kong Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

70g red large chillies, deseeded, chopped
7 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bird’s eye chili, chopped
80g white sugar
20ml white vinegar
70ml fish sauce
46ml fresh lime juice
40g sweet chili sauce
3g fine salt

METHOD:

1. Pound chillies and garlic into a rough paste with a mortar and pestle.
2. Add all the other ingredients, mix well, then transfer into a bowl.

My Wok Around Asia Siem Reap trip was made possible through the support of the following –

The post How to Make Khmer Red Ant Beef Salad first appeared on Jackie M..

Beef Lok Lak is a famous Khmer dish that is ubiquitous on restaurant menus and at street stalls all over Siem Reap. Chef Chanrith Van of Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort takes it up a notch by applying his classical culinary training to this local favourite; he uses local beef, and ages it in-house to achieve a melt-in-your-mouth texture. This in turn allows him to cut the beef in cubes (Lok Lak literally means “cube” in Cambodian), rather than slice it thinly, which is how most places serve it nowadays.

Watch the full video to see how it’s made >>

Recipe for Beef Lok Lak (4 parts) –

1) Beef Lok Lak

(Portion size: 1)

INGREDIENTS:

130g aged beef or rib eye
Pinch of salt
1 tsp olive oil
4 Tbsps Lok Lak Sauce
1 quail egg
5 shallots, sliced
5 cherry tomatoes, sliced
10g watercress
5g fresh green peppercorns
5g edible red & yellow flowers

METHOD:

1. Season beef with salt, set aside for 5 minutes.
2. Heat wok to a very high heat, add oil and sear beef on both sides until medium rare. Rest for 5 minutes.
3. Cut beef into 1.5cm cubes.
4. Fry quail egg sunny side up.
5. Wash wok, heat and add oil. Add Lok Lak sauce and beef, and fry briefly until beef is medium cooked.
6. Spoon beef on plate, drizzle with Lok Lak sauce, then arrange shallots, tomatoes, leaves, peppercorns and flowers, and top with a teaspoon of lime and pepper dip.

2) Lime & Pepper Dip

INGREDIENTS:

1 green lime, medium
1 tsp fresh crushed black peppercorns
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
¼ tsp chicken seasoning powder
¼ tsp fried garlic

METHOD:
Combine ingredients and mix well. Make to order.

3) Aged Beef

(Chef Chanrith Van would not recommend doing this if you don’t have the proper equipment for it. He suggests using rib eye steak instead of ageing the beef yourself.)

INGREDIENTS:

500g fresh beef tenderloin, cut into 130g portions
Vacuum bag & sealer

METHOD:

1. Place beef in vacuum bag and seal using vacuum machine.
2. Hang beef in refrigerator at 0-2’C for 7-14 days.

4) Lok Lak Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tbsp corn oil
5g garlic clove, thinly sliced
2.5g white onion, finely chopped
0.5 tsp kampot peppercorn, crushed
10g palm sugar
18g oyster sauce
¼ tsp soya sauce
2 tsps tomato ketchup
¼ tsp dark (thick) soya sauce
3 Tbsps chicken stock
¼ tsp chicken seasoning powder
2 tsps extra corn oil

METHOD:

1. Over medium heat in wok, add oil, garlic and onion. Saute until golden in colour.
2. Add black crushed pepper and palm sugar; cook until sugar is caramelised and golden in colour.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer; finish with oil, then cool down. Shelf life 6 days.

* Substitute palm sugar with white sugar if unavailable

My Wok Around Asia Siem Reap trip was made possible through the support of the following –

The post How to Cook Khmer Beef Lok Lak first appeared on Jackie M..

It was my first morning in Siem Reap, on my first ever trip to Cambodia. I knew no-one except a handful of staff I’d met the evening before at the hotel. I couldn’t speak one word of Khmer, and I was still trying to wrap my head around the local currency – I had converted my Aussie dollars into Cambodian riels but was pondering if I should have brought some US dollars instead, as some had advised. You would think having been raised in Southeast Asia and looking more or less like a local, that I would fit effortlessly in; you would be wrong. This was all quite new and quite strange to me.

I was in Siem Reap for Wok Around Asia, a food and recipe-focused web series I’m producing for my online platforms. In two days, I would be filming 5 Khmer cooking videos with Chef Chanrith Van of Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort. I needed to get up to speed quickly on Khmer food, so what better way to do so than to visit the sprawling local market, with Chef Chanrith as my guide?

(I would later learn that Chef Chanrith Van is one of Cambodia’s most highly-regarded chefs, though you wouldn’t know it from his humble demeanour. There’s a funny story about how I found out, but we’ll get to that in another post.)

This was what I learned from Chef Chanrith that morning and during my 5-day stay; the list is by no means comprehensive and it’s not in any order. It largely reflects what I found fascinating and different about Khmer food and cooking –

1. Lok Lak

This is both the name of the in-house restaurant at Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort, and the name of a famous Khmer dish. It literally means “cube”, hence why Chef Chanrith’s version has the beef cut into small cubes, unlike at most other places, where it is sliced. The beef is cooked in an intriguing mix of oyster sauce, kampot peppercorn, dark soya sauce and palm sugar among other ingredients, and it’s so good I ate it again as my last meal before I left Cambodia. By the way, there’s great lok lak per what I found at Lok Lak Restaurant, and there’s lok lak that tastes like a regular stir-fried beef with oyster sauce, at any number of eateries in Siem Reap.

2. Prahok

Fermented fish; Chef Chanrith explains that Prahok is used in 9 out of 10 Cambodian dishes (click to watch).

WOK AROUND ASIA – SIEM REAP Chef Chanrith Van of @courtyardsiemreap explains Prahok Don’t forget I’m going Live with another Khmer cooking masterclass with Chef Chanrith Van in the kitchen of Lok Lak Restaurant – tune in at Facebook.com/JackieMFood or www.JackieM.Live at 7pm Sydney time (GMT+10) #food #foodshare #foodie #foodlover #foodporn #foodgasm #foodstagram #getinmybelly #instaeat #sharefood #instafood #devourpower #foodblog #EEEEEATS #huffposttaste #tastespotting #foodgawker #instayum #buzzfeedfood #foodcoma #foodforfoodies #nomnomnom #foodieforlife #wokaroundasia #siemreap #khmerfood #rawfoods #travellingfoodie @tourismcambodia @cambodiatourism

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3. Flowers

Cambodians use a variety of flowers in their dishes, as garnishes and in salads.

4. Pickles

I saw all kinds of pickles at the market, made from what looked like papaya, cucumber and daikon; I’m told they’re commonly served with rice or grilled fish.

5. Red Ants

In one of my upcoming videos, Chef Chanrith uses red ants in a rare beef salad; they taste sour and when deep-fried, they provide a crunchy texture to any dish.

6. Green Tamarind

I spotted these tubs of what I thought were a chilli paste, but it turns out they were crushed green tamarind. It tasted sour like tamarind, but with a lighter, fresher note.

7. Vegetable Soup

You could be forgiven for thinking these were vegetable offcuts but in fact they’re vegetable premixes used for making soup, which is a staple of Cambodian diet; I’m told that’s what most people eat every day.

8. Palm Juice and Palm Sugar

Cambodians drink palm fruit juice the way we Malaysians drink coconut juice; they also use it to make terrific palm sugar (I brought some back with me to Sydney).

Click to watch >>

WOK AROUND ASIA – SIEM REAP Unusual food finds with Chef Chanrith Vann Head Chef Chanrith of @courtyardsiemreap and formerly of Shinta Mani and Marum takes me on a tour of Siem Reap’s local market just down the road from the hotel. He explains what this is – #food #foodshare #foodie #foodlover #foodporn #foodgasm #foodstagram #getinmybelly #instaeat #sharefood #instafood #devourpower #foodblog #EEEEEATS #huffposttaste #tastespotting #foodgawker #instayum #buzzfeedfood #foodcoma #foodforfoodies #nomnomnom #foodieforlife #siemreap #khmerfood #cambodia @courtyardsiemreap @tourismcambodia @office.tourisme.siemreap.city

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9. Raw Salted Clams

This has to be one of the most exotic foods I saw in Siem Reap – raw clams laid out on trays in the sun, with salt and chilli sprinkled over them; they’re typically eaten with rice. I didn’t get to try them on this trip, so that’s something to look forward to another time. Click to watch >>

WOK AROUND ASIA – SIEM REAP Unusual Foods – Sun-salted clams One of the most interesting-looking street foods in Siem Reap – clams sprinkled with salt and chilli – listen to what Chef Chanrith of Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort has to say about them. #food #foodshare #foodie #foodlover #foodporn #foodgasm #foodstagram #getinmybelly #instaeat #sharefood #instafood #devourpower #foodblog #EEEEEATS #huffposttaste #tastespotting #foodgawker #instayum #buzzfeedfood #foodcoma #foodforfoodies #nomnomnom #foodieforlife #malaysiatrulyasia #wokaroundasia #siemreap #khmerfood #rawfoods @courtyardsiemreap

A post shared by Jackie M (@jackiemsydney) on Feb 7, 2018 at 11:33pm PST

10. Kampot Pepper

Considered the world’s best pepper, they come in a number of varieties – green, black, red or white. I’m still kicking myself for not bringing some back with me to Sydney – long story (though I did find out that the green variety would have been confiscated by Australian customs).

If you’re familiar with Cambodia, let me know your thoughts on what other Khmer foods should be on this list.

I saw and tasted many fascinating dishes during my stay in Siem Reap, and I came away with the conviction that Khmer cuisine is very much under-recognised in the West. Now that I’m back in Sydney, I plan to explore and experiment with Khmer recipes in my own kitchen, and also to check out some Cambodian restaurants I’ve spotted in Cabramatta. Meanwhile, I also have the 5-part series of Khmer cooking videos with Chef Chanrith Van currently in post-production, so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for them.

* Baby Noah and I stayed as guests of Courtyard by Marriott Siem Reap Resort as part of my Wok Around Asia project.

The post 10 Cambodian Foods That Will Make You Fall In Love With Khmer Cooking first appeared on Jackie M..