Move to Cambodia

Since it opened three years ago, Cuisine Wat Damnak in Siem Reap has become a critically acclaimed culinary institution, attracting patrons from all over the world. Many consider it the mecca for modern Cambodian cuisine. 

This is the second of five posts from Steven, who spent time working in the Cuisine Wat Damnak kitchen, covering a five-course menu and describing some of the techniques and flavor combinations that Chef Joannès Rivière uses to such brilliant effect. Chef Rivière’s recipes have inspired a legion of chefs in Cambodia, both local and foreign. He has graciously supplied some simple recipes and cooking tips to inspire your kitchen, too.

Siem Reap’s top table: Cuisine Wat Damnak

Second Course: Prahok Ktis with Local Crudités

Prahok is a very traditional Cambodian dish whose basic ingredient is a fermented paste of salted freshwater fish. Its strong flavor is balanced with the addition of minced pork, shallots, palm sugar, and coconut, creating a unique and delicious dip that’s typically served with fresh local fruits and vegetables.

Although foreigners often shy away from prahok-based dishes, prahok ktis offers a more palatable way to eat the strongly-flavored ingredient, and Chef Rivière’s version is more refined than what you’ll find at the average mom-and-pop restaurant. The recipe requires a large cooking pot and will make enough that you can eat some now and keep the rest in the fridge for a few days–very handy if you fancy a snack, or you can serve it as part of a larger meal.

The ratio of prahok to pork is important. The chef advises 150 grams of prahok for every kilo of pork. “More prahok will make it very pungent,” he explains, “and too little will mean you will not achieve the correct flavor.” So if you’re making a smaller or larger batch of prahok, alter the amounts to maintain that ratio.

The finished product: prahok ktis with local crudites

Prahok Ktis with Local Crudités

1 kg fresh coconut water (see Chef’s Note)
1 handful fresh mushrooms
15 shallots
10 garlic cloves
2 hot chillies
1 handful pea eggplants
1 kilo minced pork
150 g prahok (see Chef’s Notes)
Vegetable oil
1 liter pork stock (see Chef’s Notes)
1 tablespoon palm sugar
1 snakehead fish (approx 12 inches long), cleaned and filleted (see Chef’s Notes)
Kaffir lime leaf
Tamarind paste
Selection of crunchy vegetables and fruits (see Chef’s Notes)

Chop the prahok and use the side of the cleaver to flatten it out until it is finely minced.

1. Put the coconut water through a strainer and refrigerate. After half an hour or so it will have separated into water and cream. Skim off the cream and place in a separate container. Keep both water and cream in the fridge until needed.
2. Prepare the vegetables that will go into the prahok ktis: wash the mushrooms and break up or chop into small pieces. Slice the shallots. Chop the garlic and chili. Pick the pea eggplants from their stalks and wash.
3. Prepare the prahok: Place the blob of prahok on a cutting board and chop with a cleaver. (See photo above.) Then run the side of the cleaver over the top of the chopped prahok to flatten it out. Repeat this chopping and flattening process until the prahok is finely minced. It should look more like a paste now. Using your hands, thoroughly mix the chopped prahok with the minced pork.
4. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the shallots, garlic, and chillies and cook until soft. Add the mushrooms and the pork-prahok mixture. Continue cooking until the mixture is golden brown. (Do this in two batches if necessary, to allow the pork to cook evenly.)
5. Transfer the contents of the frying pan to a large pot. Stir in the pea eggplants, the pork stock, the palm sugar, and the coconut water (but not the cream). Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated and the prahok is thick, rather like a thick bolognese sauce.
6. Meanwhile, cut the snakehead fillets evenly into small, thin pieces.
7. When the prahok mixture has thickened, mix in the kaffir lime leaf–thinly sliced or whole, as you prefer–and the fish meat. Stir in the coconut cream and again bring to a boil while mixing well. Mix in the tamarind paste–not enough to make the dish noticeably sour, but just enough to give it a kick. Once the prahok ktis has come to a boil, remove it from the heat but keep it warm.
8. Prepare the crudités: wash and cut the vegetables and fruits into easy-to-eat pieces. Make sure to cut out any pips, cores, or other parts that aren’t pleasant to eat. Arrange attractively in a bowl.
9. Transfer some of the hot prahok ktis into a small bowl and serve with the bowl of crudites.

Choose vegetables that are firm and crunchy. Sour and tangy fruits bring an added dimension to the dish.

Chef’s Notes

Use fresh coconut water from the market if you can. You can substitute canned coconut cream, using plain water in place of the coconut water. Using canned coconut cream means the prahok ktis has less chance of breaking, since the cream has already been boiled during the canning process and often contains stabilizers as well. However, the flavor of canned coconut cream is sometimes very strong, which can throw off the balance of the dish.

When buying prahok, the chef advises that you make sure to ask for “trey rhoy.” Prahok trey rhoy is more expensive and is prepared in smaller batches, which allows the process of fermentation to be more accurately controlled. By contrast, regular prahok is prepared with smaller and cheaper fish and in much larger quantities, which makes careful preparation and proper hygiene procedures more difficult to maintain.

To make pork stock, why not buy a rack of ribs, sear them, and then slow cook them in water for 3 hours until tender? Strain and you have pork stock, as well as some tasty ribs to fill out your dinner menu.

If you are not confident about filleting a whole fish, ask the market seller to do it for you.

If the finished dish needs additional seasoning, add salt, but do not add fish sauce, which will make the finished dish too overwhelmingly fishy.

For the crudites, Chef Rivière suggests choosing fruits and vegetables that are firm and crunchy. He notes that a slightly sour or tangy taste is also good, as it cuts through the richness of the prahok. Some good choices are: green tomatoes, cucumber, star fruit, sparrow eggplant, banana shoots (after cutting place in water and lemon juice until ready to serve), green mango, rose apple, thai basil, laksa leaves, or other aromatic herbs.

The more you cook Cambodian food, the more accustomed you will get to the flavors and ingredients.

A note about Cambodian cooking

Rivière points out that Cambodian cooking, and indeed South East Asian cooking generally, is by no means an exact science. The recipes he has provided feature all of the ingredients you will need and the techniques required to execute the dishes, but the exact amounts used will depend on your taste.

Use the ingredients sensibly and taste as you go. Masses of sugar will obviously make a dish too sweet, while not enough fish sauce may leave the dish bland and underseasoned.

The more you cook a cuisine the more accustomed you become to the basics involved. Certain ingredients come up again and again and you will learn what they do and how to use them properly. We have tried to be as clear as possible in the presentation of these recipes, but they all require you to just roll up your sleeves and give them a go.

If you’re in Siem Reap, be sure to make a reservation at Chef Rivière’s restaurant, Cuisine Wat Damnak.

Since it opened three years ago, Cuisine Wat Damnak in Siem Reap has become a critically acclaimed culinary institution, attracting patrons from all over the world. Many consider it the mecca for modern Cambodian cuisine.

This is the first of five posts from Steven of Siem Reap Food Tours, who has worked in the Cuisine Wat Damnak kitchen, describing some of the techniques and flavor combinations that Chef Joannès Rivière uses to such brilliant effect. Chef Rivière has graciously supplied some simple recipes and cooking tips for you to try at home.

Chef Joannès Rivière shares his thoughts about cooking Cambodian.

First Course: Prawn, Rambutan, and Lotus Root Salad

Cuisine Wat Damnak, simple in its concept, presents traditional Cambodian recipes and flavors in a contemporary fashion. Chef Joannès Rivière’s honest and stylish approach has inspired many attempts to emulate him, but no one else seems able to capture the warmth created by the French-born chef’s high regard for Cambodian culture and by the high quality of the ingredients he uses.

One of his sources of inspiration is Le Guide Culinaire Cambodgien (translated as The Cambodian Cookbook), a record of classic Khmer cuisine compiled in the 1960s by the sister of then King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk. The princess who put this cookbook together was passionate about Cambodian food, and her book documents the state of the country’s cuisine prior to the devastation of the Khmer Rouge period.

A recipe that Chef Rivière derived from the princess’s tome is a first-course salad of fresh prawns, crunchy lotus root and sweet rambutans. The chef says, “If the lotus root does not appeal to you, then you can substitute some seasonal tropical fruits.”

The finished product: Prawn, rambutan and lotus root salad.

Prawn, Rambutan, and Lotus Root Salad

1 kg fresh tiger prawns
3 lotus roots
1 kg rambutans (see Chef’s Note)
vinegar (preferably rice wine, but cider vinegar will do just fine)
lemon juice
long parsley, finely chopped (see Chef’s Note)
spring onions, finely sliced
500 g tamarind pulp

For the tuek prahem dressing:
75 g roasted peanuts
100 g toasted coconut
500 g tamarind pulp
10 cloves garlic
veg oil
3 Tbsp liquid palm sugar (see Chef’s Note)

Use a colander to make the tamarind paste for the tuek prahem dressing.

1. Prepare the prawns. Wash them and remove the heads and shells. Refrigerate.
2. Peel the lotus root and slice thinly, cutting diagonally across. Boil for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Strain, then place back into a pan, cover with water, and add a splash of vinegar. Boil for 5 minutes longer. Strain the sliced lotus root. Cover with water to which you’ve added lemon juice.
3. Peel the rambutans and discard the pip. Break up flesh or slice into smaller pieces.
4. Make tamarind paste: Place the tamarind pulp in a pan. Add just enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, then allow to cool. When cool, push the pulp through a colander to separate the puree from the stones. Discard the stones. The puree should be the consistency of tomato paste. If it is too thick, add a splash of water.
5. Make the tuek prahem: Grind the roasted peanuts with the toasted coconut. Chop up 10 cloves of garlic and fry in vegetable oil until they start to turn brown. Set the garlic on a kitchen towel and allow to crisp up.
6. Complete the tuek prahem: Caramelize the liquid palm sugar until it turns a dark rich brown. Add 200 ml of water and 1 heaping tablespoon of the tamarind paste. Place in a pan over medium heat and whisk, making sure the sugar completely dissolves into the water. Add a pinch of salt. Stir in the ground peanuts and coconut and the fried garlic, after first setting aside small amounts of both peanut-coconut mixture and garlic to sprinkle on top later. Blend the tuek prahem with a hand blender or whisk vigorously.
7. Cook the shrimp: Pour some vegetable or peanut oil into a pan on medium/high heat. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper to taste. When the oil is hot, place the shrimp in the pan and cook until seared on one side. Turn over and allow the second side to turn golden, but be careful not to overcook. As soon as the shrimp are cooked through, remove to a plate lined with a cloth to soak up any excess oil.
8. Assemble the salad: Put the lotus root and rambutan flesh in a bowl. Add some tuek prahem and mix well. Arrange on individual plates. Place the shrimp on top. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and spring onion. Scatter the reserved ground peanut-coconut mixture and fried garlic over the top and serve.

Not all rambutans in Cambodia are created equal.

Chef’s Notes:

The tuek prahem dressing is a very popular condiment in Cambodia and you will find it on the table in most restaurants and households. It is rich and sweet in flavor, so Rivière advises not to overdo it when dressing the salad, as you do not want to suffocate the flavors of the other ingredients.If you would prefer your version of tuek prahem to be more nutty, add more peanuts. If you want it to be sweeter, add more palm sugar. If you’d like it thinner, add a bit more water.

Long parsley is originally from South America; it is called culantro in Spanish. In Cambodia, it is primarily used as a cheap substitute for coriander, during the parts of the year that it is too hot to grow coriander. Flat-leaf (Italian) parsley can be substituted.

Bear in mind that Cambodian lotus roots are much smaller in diameter compared to their Chinese or Vietnamese counterparts, usually a maximum of 4 cm. They are also much tougher, and that is why they need to cook for so long.

Some rambutans are native to Cambodia and are smaller than the more common, larger variety. Either are good to use in this dish, but the locally grown ones have a slightly sweeter taste.

The palm sugar used in this recipe is the gooey stuff available at the market. It is a staple in every Cambodian kitchen and it caramelizes far more easily than the powdered kind.

Cambodian cooking is not an exact science; do it enough and you’ll learn to trust your instincts.

A note about Cambodian cooking

Rivière points out that Cambodian cooking, and indeed South East Asian cooking generally, is by no means an exact science. The recipes he has provided feature all of the ingredients you will need and the techniques required to execute the dishes, but the exact amounts used will depend on your taste.

Use the ingredients sensibly and taste as you go. Lots of sugar will obviously make a dish too sweet, while not enough fish sauce may leave the dish bland and underseasoned.

The more you cook a cuisine the more accustomed you become to the basics involved. Certain ingredients come up again and again and you will learn what they do and how to use them properly. We have tried to be as clear as possible in the presentation of these recipes, but they all require you to just roll up your sleeves and give them a go.

If you’re in Siem Reap, be sure to make a reservation at Chef Rivière’s restaurant, Cuisine Wat Damnak.