Cambodian Food: Chicken Curry Soup

Lord Playboy’s Khmer Mother in Law shares some of her favourite Recipes with www.khmer440.com. Despite being an acclaimed screenwriter and author she prefers to do her own cooking and says that it helps her relax. If any of our braver readers attempt cooking these recipes at home, please let us know the results!

Ingredients and proportions tend to vary in Cambodia from province to province, the recipes in this series draw on her life and learning to cook in Battambang.

Somlor karee saj moan

[Chicken curry soup]

Ingredients:

1. Chicken 500g
2. Potatoes 3 large
3. Onions 2 large
4. Coconut cream 500g
5. Curry powder 2 packets
6. Lemongrass, thinly sliced 2 dessertspoons
7. Kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped 1 teaspoon
8. Galangal, finely chopped 1 teaspoon
9. Turmeric root, finely chopped 1 teaspoon
10. Garlic 1 bulb
11. Large dried red chillies 4
12. Kapi (fermented shrimp paste) 1 teaspoon
13. Fish sauce 1 teaspoon
14. Sugar, brown or white 1 teaspoon
15. Salt half of a teaspoon
16. Soup powder half of a teaspoon

Method:

– Take the coconuts and extract 1 bowl of thick coconut cream and 2 bowls of thin coconut cream.

– Pound the lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, Kaffir lime leaves, garlic, red chillies and curry powder. – Cut the chicken into pieces. Chop the potatoes into chunks.

– Simmer the thick coconut cream in a pan until it releases its oil and then add the pounded spices.

– Put in the kapi, sugar, fish sauce and meat, and cook it to allow the flavours to penetrate the meat, then pour in the 2 bowls of thin coconut cream and simmer over a low flame.

– Taste it to correct the flavours

– Finally, put in the potato and onion, and simmer until the liquid thickens, then serve.

Enjoy!

Kosal and Lord Playboy

Additional Translation courtesy of Bachelor Translation: Tel 012 189 6518