prahok

[Larry Hatfield]

khmer prahok is a great condiment for use in cooking and as a dip. it's made from fish that are gutted, deboned, and skinned. then you mash them, salt the paste, and put in jars. it's ready to eat in 20 days after it ferments. needs no refrigeration. a little strong smelling raw but great when it's cooked.
heres how i make dip with the good stuff.


Recipe – Prahok K'tis (Dip)
Serves 4.

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes.

Ingredients:
•½ lb ground pork or beef or firm fleshed fish, chopped.
•1-3 Tablespoons prahok (depending on taste – beginners may like to start small)
•1 Tablespoon palm sugar
•Vegetable oil for frying
•2-3 Cloves minced garlic
•1 Cup coconut cream
•Fish sauce to taste
•Chopped or minced birdseye chili to taste
Preparation:
1.Heat wok, add oil, and when oil is almost smoking, add garlic and meat or fish and stir fry until cooked through.
2.Season with fish sauce, add palm sugar and coconut milk, stirring constantly, until just thickening.
3.Fold in prahok and incorporate thoroughly.
4.Add birdseye chili and simmer until the sauce has thickened to dipping consistency.
5.Serve with rice and a selection of raw vegetables such as cabbage, long beans, Thai eggplant, cucumber, water convulvus and carrot.


sometimes i take this hunting for two days or so with lots of raw veggies and what i find wild. don't have to cook anything or worry about refigeration.

[brad]

Birdseye chillie, also known as Prik Ki Nu, Is that the pepper who's name literally translates into "mouse droppings"? Love that name.

I am a fan of fish sauce, primarily the Thai version. Smells a little repulsive, but a small amount really adds a ton of flavor. Great for homemade caesar salad, soups, almost everything. I bet a it would be awesome, along with pickle juice in chili.

[Free Range]

Do you roll your own, or buy this Prahok stuff? And if you buy I'm assuming any good Asian Market should have it?

[Larry Hatfield]

both. also get some from friends that bring it back from cambodia. it is kind of strong smelling uncooked! if you look for it in a store just make sure you can't see any bones or skin! "pickled mud fish" is the best. the "gouramand" usually has bone ond skin.
if you know of a cambodian store look for siem reap style. it's the best

[rusty craine]

well i finally got a palette understanding of shrimp sauce. I think it would have been easier if I had not seen it being made :). does this mean I ready for fish sauce?

rusty

[Larry Hatfield]

rusty, fish sauce is the salt in s.e.asia as well as a way to enhance flavor. i put some in my scrambled eggs.
don't buy any thats dark black or has salt on the bottom like tiparo.
i chop 20-30 birds eye chili and add them to a 1/2 cup of fish sauce, add juice of one lime along with the pulp and spoon it on rice and food.
it's my salsa.

[barking mad]

Is there a preference on fish species when making Prahok? As in, oily vs dry flesh, or any other particulars to take in account? I'd be interested in trying to make my own.

Thank you,
-bm.

[Larry Hatfield]

my daughter has used smelt with kind of mixed results. also catfish, with better taste. maybe you could find some directions on line for making your own? it's sort of a fine line between fermentation and rotting that i don't know how to explain.
do a search for buying it. when you know what it's supposed to be like it will be easier to understand directions.
the best stuff says "siem reap style" and is actually made in thailand. it should look like a grey paste with no bones or skin visible. and no "chunks" of fish.
alwys look for a clear glass jar so nothing is hidden from view.

[barking mad]

Thank you for the information.

There is a very good Vietnamese grocery nearby, I'll try there for starters.

-bm.

[Larry Hatfield]

heres a picture of one of the best kind. some vietnamese products are close but not good as far as we are concerned. maybe a cultural thing?

[groundhawg]

"it's sort of a fine line between fermentation and rotting that i don't know how to explain."
this is what is a little scary when i think about making my own.....you have to taste it to know and if you got it right/wrong then what??? ha

[Larry Hatfield]

you have to add just enough salt to keep it from totally rotting but not so much it will keep it from breaking down and pickling.
it should smell pretty bad to western noses before cooking but really good when you cook it with soup, pork, or vegetables.
well, i'll admit in soup it can smell a little like the bottom of a hamster cage, or so my wife tells me.

[Larry Hatfield]

Sầu Đâu (Cambodian Sadao Salad)

Sadao are flower buds which grow on trees in Cambodia and surrounding regions. At first taste, the flowers are extremely bitter, more bitter than bitter melon, however the bitterness is soon lost in their unique flavor and slightly sweet aftertaste. Those not familiar with Sadao often find it too bitter to handle, but after a few bites most people turn into devoted fans. Sadao can be found frozen or fresh in most asian grocery stores (in Seattle at least).

Ingredients:
-1 package sadao flower (frozen l package = 1lb)
-1 lb pork belly
-1 tilapia (1-2lbs)
-3 pickling cucumbers
-dấp cá and tía tô herbs

What to Do:
Thaw sadao flowers and drop into a pot of boiling water and give a quick stir. Remove from heat, allow sadao (in water) to cool (cool enough to handle). Remove sadao from water and strip the flowers off the stem (hold the stem with one hand and use the other hand to “strip” the flowers starting from the bottom of the stem to the tip). Boil pork and slice thin, clean and grill fish, de-bone and flake into bite size pieces. Slice cucumbers and chop herbs. Finally mix everything together and serve with tamarind sauce.

tamerind sauce
i1-2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp knorrs tamerind soup base
1 tbsp prahok
1/2 cup water
1-2 tbsp palm sugar
bring water to boil, add all ingredients, stir to dissolve powder and blend, simmer a little on low flame, let cool a bit and pour over sadao mix.

i just had this for lunch. we found good frozen sadao in a khmer market in seattle yesterday and my daughter fixed it for my lunch!

[barking mad]

Finally made it out to the grocer's today. Keeping in mind not to buy anything with heads or fins visible in the mix, left the jars on the shelf. There were several brands, but all had rice flour, sugar et al as extra ingredients, and the odd fin and gill plate here and there. Shall have to keep looking. Would really like to find some quality prahok.

Picked up some of the usual stables. The shrimp paste is a super base for soups and strir fries, the chili paste is a condiment to go with most meals.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4013/4581631889_3d4204e2d7.jpg

-bm.

[Larry Hatfield]

that chili with garlic is good to float on soup too!!!
thats thai kapi you have there. nothing wrong with that. i don't use any of the prahok or kapi that hasn't been to boiling temperature. gets rid of impurities that could make you sick.
ask the vietnamese people how to make cahn chua. bet you would really like that!!!

[rusty craine]

Debbie and I went to Nguyen Loi's market. the look on her face was priceless :). there were three aisles of shrimp/fish sauces. some of the sauces had chunks of fish??, some had the look of potted meat, some had a dead gray look :). debbie picked on one glass jar and looked carefully at it......"there are eye balls in there looking back at me". she turned a bit pale and went the the rice steamer aisle.

what a confusing array of sauces. there was a aged lady with a nice smile coming down the aisle. she had a red checked scarf around her head and a native type dress. she had a name tag on thus I'd think she was an empolyee.

I smiled at her and threw up my hands in confusion. then i pointed to various bottles. she spoke rapidly in a unknown language. selected a jar and handed it to me. I opend my palm and made little concentic circles each one getting larger. she understood. she stuck her thumb up and indicated a stopping point. I nodded affrimation and took the sauce.

I found the pepper stuff. we went to the fresh produce and selected some things that looked like what we had seen before. Debbie would not let me buy meat from the butcher there. seeing plucked duck with feet and heads hanging.....ah well put her off :)

we went to our local grocery. she selected ground turkey. she looked me striaght eye ball to eye....."i'd better not see an eye ball looking back at me from my food".

actually the stir fire was quite nice even with ground turkey. debbie tentative at first had seconds.

it was a nice adventure for the weekend. well out of our normal fort worth pathways :)

rusty

[rusty craine]

on the other hand if ya'as out with the cowboys runing fence line, modest meals quickly prepared are the rule. some fo the cowbys tastes are on the picky side. Montey only eats bread and meat. his vegtable is Valsic jalapeon peppers slices. valsic are packed in vinegar, some spices and a little sugar. the come off with a hot sweet aftr taste.

freash ground lean pork, half a thumb joint of mam ca thu xay fish sauce(sorry I didn't knoiw how to make the proper "a" with the accent on it), gourmet garden garlic spice blend, sea salt and ground pepper. mix fish sauce, garlic paste and sea salt in a tablespoon for egg white. blend in ground meat with black pepper. fire in a black skillet till done. I like the burger on a bed of valsic sliced jalapeno and san fransisco sour doe bread slices.

the taste of the pork patty falvored with fish sauce and garlic in competition with the swee/sour/hoy jalpeno slices has a markclean un-complex flavor.

I would not utter the two wrods fish sauce for aobut a year or so in fornt of the cowboys. best jsut call it grandma's secert sauce.

quick and easy, not much mess. cowboys like it and will continue to as long as thedy don't discover it is made with channel cat bait :)

http://i706.photobucket.com/albums/ww66/rustycraine/fishsauceburger.jpg

don't kow if this was a good or bad fish sauce, tastes niced . we serve it with bud lite

rusty

[Larry Hatfield]

rusty, when i ride fence i cook prahok with ground pork, onion, garlic, a little nam pla, and thai chilis, then mix it with rice. by the time i stop and eat its however warm the day is and tastes pretty good! one thing about that is all my dogs go upwind and lay under a sagebrush until i'm horseback again!
i understand your wifes felings. my non asian wife sort of shudders when she sees me and my khmer daughter inspecting pig stomachs, bungs, and vaginas in a market. she will eat rice gruel made with pork stomach and fish and flavored with prahok though.

[rusty craine]

I haven't been too much of a stir fire cook. I don't even have a wok. I was looking at egg plant recipes on the internet. I noticed several recipes for egg plant included in stir fire.

I decided to give egg plant stir fire a try with vegatables from our local store. zuccini, yellow squash, onions, egg plant, red sweet pepper, mushrooms and snow peas. No meat.

fired you the old cast iron skillet. all i had at hand was olive oil, so I used it. put in the fish sauce, garlic pepper stuff. cooked with high flame.

very good. remarkable cheap meal. if you could get by without mushrooms and snow peas it would be real cheap. think i'll get me a wok but I don't know that it will do any better than my old skillet.

Larry, thanks for the tips. stir fire meals are good, cheap, and quick. ya can't beat that.

rusty

[Larry Hatfield]

rusty if you can flip food in a skillet steady you don't need a wok.
i like a wok and wok shovels because i tend to throw food around when i flip it in a skillet.
if you want to try asparagus a different way try peeling the large ends of the stem with a potato peeler so all of it cooks evenly. i stir fry it with garlic, ginger, and a little oyster sauce if i want it alone.
you can also marinate thin sliced beef with some teriyaki, oyster sauce and ginger for a hour or so, dump all the meat and marinade in a hot pan add some garlic and the asparagus and stir fry it till the asparagus is crisp tender.
if it starts to cook too dry just add water a tablespoon at a time until the asparagus is cooked and then taste and correct the seasoning.
i add the garlic chili sauce as i'm eating it because it overpowers the flavors if you add it in the wok.
just had some veggie style last night.
oh, if you marinate meat taste your mix before you add the meat. if it's too harsh or salty or both just add sugar a little at a time until it's right.