Kroeung - the basis of Cambodian foodfeatured
Cambodian Kroeung which directly translates to “ingredients” is the herb paste that gives Cambodian dishes their distinctly exotic flavours and aromas which distinguishes Khmer dishes from neighboring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. This is a basic recipe for yellow kroeung, but there are many variations available, such as red kroeung and green kroeung.
Yellow kroeung is the holy grail of Cambodian cooking. Every family probably have a recipe that have been passed on from generation to generation. My grandma passed this recipe to my mom and my mom knocked this recipe into my head, literally. I had the attention span of a goldfish with ADHD. Yah, I didn’t really like cooking when I was young. What’s the point when the food is made for you? I was spoiled that way, I only started cooking when I moved out on my own. And let me tell you, once you start cooking, you start reading food books, and eventually, you start wanting to make every food from every culture. Although I do love Korean, Italian and Japanese foods, I always come back to Cambodian cooking. There’s nothing like the cooking that you grew up with, the taste of nostalgia.
6 stalks of lemongrass, finely sliced
16 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 oz of galangal, peeled and finely chopped
2 oz of fresh turmeric, peeled and finely chopped
8 kaffir lime leaves, hand ripped*, finely sliced with the hard ribs removed
4 pieces of thai chilli peppers
4 shallots, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of salt
Combine all ingredients and grind it to a paste with a blender (put the softer/easier to grind ingredients in first since the liquid that forms will help to process the other harder ingredients). After everything is grinded to a paste, I like to use my mortar and pestle to grind it some more to release all of its distinctive flavours and juices.
This recipe is enough for many Cambodian stews, stir fries and soup. I like to make large batches and storing them since fresh turmeric roots leaves yellow stains behind. Plus we use so much kroeung in our cooking that it makes sense to do so. I seriously hate handling turmeric, it stains everything it touches, including your skin and nails. I learn that it’s always a good idea to wear those disposable plastic food handling gloves when making this. Anyways, the kroeung that I’m going to be using for two weeks will be stored in a plastic bag, while the rest of the kroeung would be placed into a glass container and freezed, which should last for months.
*According to my mom when you hand rip the kaffir lime leaves, it releases more of their fragrance so you can really scent it in the salaw.
