Prahok Ktiss The delectably rich Cambodian prahok ktiss is served with fresh vegetables and rice. The three main ingredients for this recipe are fermented fish (Prahok), lemongrass paste (Kroeung), and coconut milk. It’s a perfect introduction to the traditional Khmer dishes that use kroeung, a lemongrass paste made of herbs and spices, and prahok, which is very popular in Cambodia.

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INGREDIENTS

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• Pork: We use skinless pork belly but ground pork with 70% lean meat and 20% fat would work just fine.
• Fermented Fish (Prahok): Buy from the Asian grocery store, and rinse to remove some extra saltiness. 
• Lemongrass Paste (Kroeung): made of lemongrass, galangal, shallot, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, and water (if you use a blender, add water to make the blending process easier). 
• Red bell pepper paste: Soak in warm water until they turned soft, then remove the seeds and finely chop or blend in a food processor. Or you can substitute chili flakes mix with hot water.
• Coconut cream: here we use can coconut cream the consistency is thicker than naturally extracted coconut cream.
• Roasted peanut – Roast the peanuts on medium heat until crispy. Then pound but not too fine.
• Tamarind paste – combine the seedless tamarind with hot boiling water and stir until it becomes a paste.
• Baby eggplant – Some roast the baby eggplant before adding it to the dipping sauce. However, freshly added is still good!
• Palm sugar – Use palm sugar to add a nice flavor to it. It would be the same amount as granulated sugar in case you could not find the palm sugar.
• Fish sauce – Add less or more depending on the saltiness of the fermented fish (prahok). Adjust to your taste.
• Salt – Add less or more depending on the saltiness of the fermented fish (prahok). Adjust to your taste.
• Chicken Soup base mix – this chicken powder is good to balance the flavor, you can omit it if you don’t like it.

STEPS:

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1.

Lemongrass Paste: Use a blender to blend lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallot, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, and water until it becomes a fine paste. Then extract the juice from the lemongrass paste, and set it aside.

2.

Red Bell Pepper Paste: Soak dried red bell pepper in warm water for at least 1-2 hours. Then remove the seeds and finely chop until it turns into a paste.

3.

Tamarind Paste: Soak the tamarind in hot boiling water for 5 minutes, then stir until it becomes a paste.

4.

Roasted Peanuts: Pan roast peanuts, and pound using a pestle and mortar but not too fine. Set aside.

5.

Pork & Fermented Fish: First, thinly slice skinless pork belly or use the ground pork to save time on chopping, then finely chopped together with fermented fish (prahok).

6.

Place a wok or a non-stick pan over medium-high heat, pour in coconut cream, and red bell pepper paste, and stir until combined. Add lemongrass paste and stir, then add ground pork with fermented fish and stir until well combined. Pour in the lemongrass juice, tamarind paste, palm sugar, roasted peanuts, chicken soup base mix, salt, and fish sauce, and stir. Last but not least, add baby eggplant and stir, cook for about 2 minutes, then turn the heat off.

Serving!

Serve with rice and fresh vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, long purple eggplant, round eggplant, carrot, and so on. Do not forget chili pepper if you like spicy food! Yummy!

NOTE: 

• Baby eggplant; roast the baby eggplant helps to make the Prahok Ktiss more flavourful.
• Peanuts; pan roasting the peanuts is very important, helps the flavor be more tasteful.
• This dish uses almost organic ingredients, so the flavor is natural rather than artificial.

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