About this recipe
Samlor korko is often described as one of the most traditional and everyday of Khmer dishes — a thick, rustic stew of many vegetables in an earthy broth seasoned with kroeung and prahok and thickened with toasted ground rice. It is a farmhouse dish in spirit, made from whatever the garden and market give: green papaya, pumpkin, eggplant, long beans, moringa leaves and other greens, cooked with a little pork, fish or smoked fish. Unlike the sour soups of the region, korko is not built around tamarind or sourness; its character comes from the prahok, the aromatics and the nutty toasted rice. It is presented here as a prominent Cambodian home dish, with its claim to special antiquity or national status logged for verification.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 to 6 servings
- Prep
- 30 minutes
- Cook
- 40 minutes
- Total
- 70 minutes
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Spice
- Mild
Allergens As written contains pork or fish and shellfish (prahok). Can be made with fish instead of pork. Contains no coconut or dairy. 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 toasted ground rice (ambok)
- 3 tbsp (40 g) raw jasmine rice
The kroeung
- 2 stalks lemongrass, tender part, sliced
- 1 in (2.5 cm) fresh turmeric, or 1 tsp (3 g) ground
- 5 slices galangal
- 3 cloves garlic
- 3 shallots
- 2 dried red chillies, soaked (optional)
The stew
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) neutral oil
- 8 oz (225 g) pork shoulder or belly, cut into bite-size pieces (or firm fish / smoked fish)
- 1 1/2 tbsp (22 g) prahok, mashed and strained, or 1 1/2 tbsp (22 ml) fish sauce
- 6 cups (1.4 L) water or light stock
- 1 tsp (5 g) palm sugar
- 2 cups green papaya or green (unripe) mango, peeled and cut into chunks
- 2 cups kabocha squash or pumpkin, in chunks
- 1 Asian eggplant, cut into chunks
- 1 cup long beans, cut into 2 in (5 cm) lengths
- 2 cups moringa leaves, pumpkin-vine tips or other sturdy greens
- Salt, to taste
- Steamed rice, to serve
Equipment
- Large pot or Dutch oven
- Mortar and pestle or food processor for the kroeung
- Small dry pan for toasting rice
- Spice grinder or mortar for grinding the toasted rice
Method
- Toast the rice: in a dry pan over medium heat, toast the raw rice, shaking often, until deep golden and fragrant, 6 to 8 minutes. Cool, then grind to a coarse powder in a mortar or grinder. Set aside.
- Pound the kroeung ingredients to a paste in a mortar, hardest to softest.
- Heat the oil in the pot over medium heat. Fry the kroeung 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant, then add the pork (or fish) and stir to coat and lightly brown.
- Stir in the strained prahok (or fish sauce) and cook a minute, then add the water or stock and the palm sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes if using pork, to begin tenderising.
- Add the firmer vegetables — green papaya and squash — and simmer 10 minutes. Then add the eggplant and long beans and simmer 8 minutes more, until everything is tender.
- Stir in the toasted ground rice and simmer 3 to 5 minutes; the broth will thicken slightly and turn earthy and cloudy. Add the greens and cook just until wilted.
- Season with salt and a little more prahok or fish sauce to taste. The stew should be thick, earthy and savoury.
- Serve hot in bowls with steamed rice.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Samlor Korko 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.