With great care, time and effort the families on the island ensure that there is an abundance of fruit, vegetables, herbs and rice. There is in fact little that need to buy from the market across the river. Chickens are free range or 'freedom food' as they were described to me, fish and crab can be caught in the Mekong or local ponds.
Several times now I have made the return ferry ride from the Market in town only to be told that the food I have brought is available on the Island where it is much tastier, much healthier and of course a better price. I am learning very quickly thanks to the ladies who dutifully pick through my shopping and ask me how much each item costs. I think they also like to see what I cook and how much I know about Cambodian food, I hope they are pleasantly surprised.
In an effort to learn as much as possible I have found a good friend So Tee who is willing to swap cooking classes with me. I teach one recipe, So Tee teaches me one in return and of course the produce must come from the Island. The first dish I have been taught is a nutritious fragrant stew called Samlor Kakor. The stew is packed full of freshly harvested veg and a prime example of the variety of produce grown on the Island. There is a good recipe and description for this dish on the KhmerFood.Bizz website if you would like to try cooking it.
http://khmerfood.biz/index.php/soups-curries/20-recipes/soups-curries/133-soup-samlor-kako
The key to this dish is the fresh green kroeung spice paste that is carefully minced and crushed in a pestle and mortar. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the lemongrass leaves were used to give the paste its colour and extra flavour.
After frying off some prahok, diced pork and the curry paste she added the veg and cooked everything together with water and coconut milk.
The finished dish was as good as promised, a fragrant lightly spiced soup packed with vegetables and filling enough to eat on its own.
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