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Battambang – Recipes

Saturday, June 24th, 2006

Here are a few recipes from my cooking class. I’d really urge you to try them, they were veh, veh easy and scrumptious at the same time.

If you are observant you will notice that the first recipe, Amok (the national dish of Cambodia) has coconut in it, so I haven’t tried this. However, I know that some of you are wierdos who like coconut, and so I offer this up for your eating pleasure. Enjoy! (You freak).

Fish Amok
NB For fish, you could also substitute chicken, pork or beef (sliced very thinly), tofu, or just vegetables.

1 tablespoon MSG (optional – but you gotta love a recipe that starts with MSG)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste
150g fish, sliced

200g ground coconut mixed with water (or a can of coconut milk)
50g bamboo shoot – sliced into 1 inch pieces
50g green beans, sliced into 1 inch pieces
1/2 aubergine (egg plant for my transatlantic readers – but don’t get me started on the name)
1 tablespoon curry paste (we made ours – see below – but you could probably use Thai red curry paste if you couldn’t be faffed)
1 tablespoon roasted and crushed peanuts

5 kaffir lime leaves – thinly sliced
1/2 onion
50g mushrooms

For the curry paste, grind up:
20g lemongrass – thin slices
3 thin slices of ginger
2 thick slices of turmeric
8 kaffir lime leaves – thin slices
7 cloves of garlic – crushed
2-4 dried red chillies, de-seeded and sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 small green chillies
Bash it in a pestle and mortar until it’s a smooth paste. This will give you a cardio workout at the same time, so everyone’s a winner.

Put the coconut milk in a wok and bring it to the boil, add the curry paste, shrimp paste, and fry gently for 20 seconds. Then add the fish and vegetables and cook for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. For a dry Amok, cook until the coconut milk is gone. Serve with peanut and kaffir lime leaves as a garnish.

Chicken Lok Lak
These ingredients serve 1, so multiply up as you wish.

150g chicken breast – sliced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon MSG
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
4 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon chilli sauce
1 teaspoon crushed black pepper
10 (ten, not a typo!) cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup

50g green beans cut into 1 inch pieces
1 small tomato, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
salad to garnish

For the pepper sauce:
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon MSG
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 teaspoons hot water

Mix the chicken with the oyster sauce, tom ketch, pepper, sugar and MSG and leave it to marinate. Put the oil into a wok or a pan over a high heat. Add the garlic to fry until it turns slightly brown. Then add the chicken and vegetables and fry for 2 minutes. Add the chilli sauce and cook for a few seconds. Turn off the heat. Serve it with the vegetables and, if you like, serve it with a fried egg on top.

You can use beef or pork instead of chicken. The ingredients need to be mixed at least 2 minutes before you fry them.

Beef with ginger
120g ginger, fried until it’s slightly brown
120g beef, thinly sliced
*1 tablespoon oyster sauce
*1 tablespoon soy sauce
*1/2 tablespoon sugar
*1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
4 tablespoons oil
2 spring onions, chopped
1 tablespoon MSG

Marinate the beef with the ingredients marked *. Put the oil into a wok, add the garlic and fry until it’s brown. Add the beef and cook for three minutes, add the ginger and stir fry again. Add the chilli sauce, garnish with the spring onions.

Posted in Cambodia, Recipes, Travel | 1 Comment »

Udaipur – recipes

Sunday, March 19th, 2006

Chai

Per person:

1 glass milk

Half a cup of water

Two teaspoons sugar

Half a spoon of black tea leaves

1 cardamom pod

2-3 black peppercorns

Half an inch of root ginger (whole)

Combine the liquid in a pan.  Crush the ginger and cardamom, add them to the pan along with the sugar.  Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.  Strain into a glass, and voila – the drink of the masses here in India.

Channa Masala

Soak a few handfuls of chickpeas according to the instructions on the packet, then boil them until they’re soft.  Use more or less depending on the numbers you’re feeding.  For the masala sauce (this does 1 or 2 people – multiply it up if you’re feeding a crowd):

5 cloves of garlic

2 small red onions

1 inch piece root ginger

Another red onion, chopped

Small pinch of garam masala

2 fresh tomatoes, chopped

2.5 teaspons ground coriander

0.5 teaspoon chilli powder

Small pinch tumeric powder

0.5 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon soya oil.

In a pestle and mortar or fod processor, blitz the first three ingredients.  Put the oil in a pan, add a pinch of cumin, add the third red onion, and fry until browned.  Add the blitxed garlic, onion and ginger.  Add half a glass of water, and spices.  Boil until the water evaporates.  Add the tomatoes (if you wanted to do a different veg masala, eg potatoes and spinach, add them at this point with some water, and cover until they’re cooked).  Slightly crush some of the chickpeas with a spoon, add to the masala sauce.

Vegetable Pilau rice

You can use any vegetables for this – we used cauliflower, cabbage, peas, spring onions – absolutely anything would be good.

Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan, get it hot, then add a pinch of aniseed seeds.  They should pop a bit.  Put the vegetables and fry them until they’re soft.  Then add a pinch each of chilli, turmeric, and ground coriander.  Tomatoes should go in last.  Add a bit of water, and simmer.  When the vegetables are done, stir through enough rice to feed you all.

Chapatti

1 cup of wheat flour

Pinch of salt

Enough water to bind.

Mix the ingredients to make a dough, take a ball and roll it out, then fry it in a hot, dry pan.  Turn it over when bubbles appear on the surface, and spin it round in the pan to ensure even cooking – hot air gets trapped during cooking, so be careful.

Naan

Basic recipe:-

1 cup white flour (I think in the uk you’d probably use plain, maybe someone can experiement with plain/self-raising flour and let me know?!)

2/3 spoons yoghurt (plain, not strawberry)

0.5 teaspoon sugar

Mix into a dough, and cook as the chapatti above – in a hot dry pan, turn when you see bubbles, and spin it carefully to cook evenly.

For scrumptious spicy tomato and garlic naan, set 2/3 tablespoons of plain yogurt to drain in a small sieve (like a tea strainer).  Throw away the water in the bottom, and to the rest (I think it’s the curds), add 2/3 cloves of crushed garlic, crushed back pepper, and salt.  Put this on top of your cooked naan.

Chop 3 or 4 good, sweet tomatoes.  In a pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil with a pinch of aniseed – again, this should pop.  Add a chopped small red onion, and stir.  Add a pinch of chilli and turmeric, and stir through with the tomatoes.  Add salt and a little sugar.

Put this mixture on one half of the garlic-topped naan, and fold over like a sandwich.  Eat, pausing every so often to exclaim “mmmmmmm” and “wow”.

Enjoy, people!

Posted in India, Recipes, Travel | 1 Comment »