Cambodia has run amok

First, here is an amazing temple in Cambodia that you may have seen before:

thanks, cambodiahouse.com.au!

Ok. For this post, I’m going to shift from my usual dabble into history and current affairs as relates to food, because something happened on the way to Cambodia. And that something… is epic failure.

And it’s important to talk about your failures.

It goes like this: You’re doing some things out of your comfort zone. So that means there are things that you aren’t familiar with, have never had. And that’s ok. But sometimes… it leads to feelings of nausea and scarring.

We both enjoy coconut, we really do! Sometimes it’s too sweet, but that’s usually in a candy or dessert setting. So a fish recipe—especially one called AMOK—that involves some coconut and spice sounds awesome. But, my friends… have you ever had coconut cream?

Several recipes we researched involved using a whole ton of it. Like, 1-2 CUPS. So we thought—ok! Let’s try this coconut cream. New things! And I stand by that decision-making, in general… but every once in a while it backfires. Our first batch of this was inedible. The cloying sweetness was enough to induce gagging. After more than two bites, my stomach was so upset and disgusted by the sweet… it had to be dumped. No way would I ever eat another bite. And I was not alone: it was SO BAD.

I don’t know if somehow along the line we got our products confused and ended up with a sweeter product than the recipe intended. I don’t even think coconut cream is SUPPOSED to be super sweet. Maybe we just picked a terrible brand. I’m not sure. But I’m pretty positive when we tried again, and left out the coconut cream, the results were SO MUCH BETTER. Edible, and even tasty.

So, remember, kids:

the stuff

2 lg fish fillets, cut into hunks (pick a hearty white fish)
½ tbsp lemongrass, minced
½ tbsp ginger, minced
½ tsp turmeric
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
½ tsp shrimp paste
1 tsp red curry paste
the tiniest bit of coconut cream (maybe. I mean… if you want to.)
2 lg kaffir lime leaves, 1 sliced
1 long red chili, thinly sliced
rice! (you should know how to make some rice)

 the moves

1. Combine the lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, garlic,salt, sugar, fish sauce, shrimp and curry pastes, and 1 lime leaf in a food processor situation and process that up til it’s a nice paste. THIS IS GOING TO SMELL AWESOME.
2. Heat a frying pan large enough for the fish over medium heat. Add the paste, stir it around for a couple minutes and breath in the delicious fragrance!
3. Add the drop of coconut cream (I will probably skip this forever. I don’t think I can ever eat it again) and bring to a simmer, then remove and put in a large-ish bowl to cool.
4. Toss the fish in the mixture. Yum.
5. Start making some rice. I’m not going to tell you how to do that.
6. So here’s the trick: you want to make little fish bundles with the banana leaves (make sure they are washed!). Take a nice sized (big rectangle!) banana leaf (it should be able to fold over a whole piece of fish and create a bundle)—put half the fish stuffs in the middle of the leaf, top with some lime leaf and chili, fold up the ends to meet and secure with toothpicks.* Repeat with another banana leaf and the rest of the fish.

*Let’s be honest. I made this part up. In that, I’m sure there are many people out there who would actually know how to wrap food in a banana leaf for cooking. Clearly, we are not those people. But I got the idea—we want a bundle of yum to steam the fish in. So… do what you can, and when you get the chance, ask             someone who actually knows what they are doing!**

**As another side note, if we had a bunch of money, this is what we would spend our time doing—getting people to show us how to execute all of these techniques.  For now, we rely on traveling when we can, and near harassment of strangers from other countries for the sake of food fact finding.

7. Steam the bundles over med-high for about 15 min, or until the fish is cooked through. If you have a real steamer, the good basket ones, woohoo! We have a metal thingy but we made it work. Anyway, when it’s done, serve over rice.

Also, we kept that coconut cream around for goodness knows what reason, considering there is no way either of us will voluntarily eat it again. Probably ever. He even still has trouble if something calls for “coconut milk” or “coconut water” just by association. I mean. Look: this experience obviously scarred us both. It’s not fair, because EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS but the coconut cream is a recipe for awesomeness. Fish? Curry-stuffs? What is not to enjoy? I’ll tell you what: coconut cream.

I didn’t even take pictures, I guess, the failure was so epic. Oh well. Here’s a map:

thanks, pepfarv.gov!