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Cooking in BattambangApr 14, 2009
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The busy busy markets on New Year
The produce in the markets.
The meat section of the markets...
Having received a recommendation from a friend about the cooking course in Battambang, I decided to book myself in. The course is run by a husband and wife team from their home, which they built only last year. I was picked up on a motorbike by the husband and taken to the local market. It was completely crazy busy because of Khmer New Year and all my sense were assaulted, primarily my nose!
The piles of birghtly coloured produce looked absolutely gorgeous, and there was quite a lot of vegetables I'd never seen before. The fish an meat market section were a little more confronting, the air heavy with the scent of freshly slaughted fish, chicken, pig and cow. I drew quite a few stares from the locals as the only foreigner in the vicinity, but I'm used to being a celebrity, so it didn't faze me!
Back at the house, I wsa involved in all the preparation of the food, chopping, pounding, peeling and mixing. The dishes I made were all traditional Khmer food: fish amok, beek lock lack, and chicken red curry.
The fish amok is basically fish red curry with vegetables, poured into a square container made from bamboo leaves (I made that too!), then topped with thickened coconut curry, fresh chilli, carrot and coriander. Then it's steamed in a big steamer for 15 minutes, and voila! Fish amok!
Beef lock lack is small strips of beef marinated in oyster sauce, chicken stock, salt, sugar and shrimp paste which is fried in oil and poured over fresh cucumber, tomato and onion, all thinly sliced. It is served with a runny dipping sauce made primarily from Kampong pepper, yum!
And red curry is red curry, lol. But I did make it from scratch, and saw for the first time fresh tumeric... who knew it was a small root looking thing??
