About this recipe
Nom banh chok is one of Cambodia's most everyday and beloved dishes: fresh, fine rice noodles, made by pressing a rice dough through a die into simmering water, laid on a plate and topped with a thin, herbal fish gravy and a generous heap of raw vegetables and herbs. The classic morning version, sometimes called num banh chok samlor Khmer, carries a pale green-yellow gravy of pounded freshwater fish, lemongrass, turmeric, fingerroot (krachai) and kaffir lime, thinned to a light sauce rather than a rich curry. It is often sold by women from baskets in the early morning, and the fresh noodles are the heart of it. It sits in the broad Southeast Asian family of rice-noodle-and-fish-gravy dishes but is distinct from the coconut or tamarind laksas of the Malay world; the differences are drawn out below and the shared lineage is logged for verification.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 40 minutes (using bought fresh noodles)
- Cook
- 30 minutes
- Total
- 70 minutes
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Spice
- Mild
Allergens Contains fish and shellfish (prahok, and shrimp paste if used). Naturally free of pork and, in the classic form, of coconut. Can contain coconut milk in some versions. Not vegetarian as written. See the halal-status field.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The fish and gravy base
- 1 lb (450 g) freshwater fish, or a firm white fish, cleaned
- 4 cups (950 ml) water, for poaching
- 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) coconut milk (optional, for a richer southern-style gravy)
- 1 tbsp (15 g) prahok, mashed and strained, or 1 tbsp (15 ml) fish sauce plus a little more to taste
- 1 tsp (5 g) palm sugar
- Salt, to taste
The green kroeung
- 3 stalks lemongrass, tender part, sliced
- 1 in (2.5 cm) fresh turmeric, chopped, or 1 tsp (3 g) ground turmeric
- 6 slices fresh galangal
- 2 tbsp chopped fingerroot (krachai), if available
- 4 kaffir lime leaves, deveined
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 shallots
To serve
- 1 1/2 lb (680 g) fresh nom banh chok or fine fresh rice vermicelli
- 2 cups shredded banana blossom, held in acidulated water (optional)
- 2 cups (about 150 g) bean sprouts
- 1 cucumber, julienned
- 2 cups shredded cabbage or water-spinach stems
- 1 cup mixed herbs (mint, Thai basil-style holy basil if available, cilantro, saw-leaf herb)
- Long beans, thinly sliced (optional)
- Lime wedges and sliced chilli
Equipment
- Mortar and pestle or food processor for the kroeung
- Medium pot for the gravy
- Fine sieve
- Serving plates or shallow bowls
Method
- Poach the fish in the 4 cups water until just cooked, about 8 minutes. Lift out, reserve the poaching liquid, and when cool enough flake the flesh, discarding skin and bones. Keep the flesh and the strained liquid separate.
- Pound the green kroeung ingredients to a smooth paste in a mortar, hardest to softest.
- Pound or mash about half the flaked fish into the kroeung to make a thick, aromatic base (reserve the rest of the fish to add later).
- Bring the reserved poaching liquid to a simmer, whisk in the kroeung-and-fish paste, and cook 10 minutes so the aromatics mellow. Add the coconut milk if using for a richer gravy.
- Season with the strained prahok (or fish sauce), palm sugar and salt. Simmer another 5 minutes to a thin, pourable gravy — it should coat a spoon lightly, not thickly. Stir in the reserved flaked fish and warm through.
- Warm or rinse the fresh noodles as needed to loosen them, and portion into nests on each plate or shallow bowl.
- Ladle the warm gravy generously over the noodles.
- Serve with the platter of raw vegetables and herbs and the lime and chilli, letting each person pile on vegetables and finish to taste.
The Complete Edition
Nom Banh Chok sits in the Cambodia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Cambodia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.