Tuk Kreung is very traditional dish, particularly eaten during the rainy season when a lot of vegetable and fish varieties are available in and around the rivers, rice fields and forest periphery. Eating tuk Kreung generally requires no implements such as spoon or fork. The vegetable medley can be adapted to any season or location and there is enormous diversity among the provinces in Cambodia.

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

300g Freshwater fish
100g Prahok (fermented fish paste), deboned

Kroeung (for mortaring)

3 cloves garlic
100g palm sugar
50g bird’s eye chilli (2-3 chillis)
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp salt
100g Peanuts, ground coarsely
20g Saw-tooth coriander (chi ronha), chopped finel

Instructions:

1. Boil the fish for 10-15 minutes and allow to cool slightly before deboning. Mashing the fish in a mortar until it becomes pasty.
2. Use 1.5 cups of the previous cooking water to boil the prahok for two minutes, stirring vigorously to combine the broth and prahok.
3. Separately mortar the kroeung ingredients (and except chili if desired) until a fine paste.
4. Combine kroeung, prahok broth, fish, and peanuts. Mix well.
5. Put dipping sauce into bowls and garnish with chopped saw-tooth coriander.

Vegetable Medley, carefully washed and processed as instructed below:

• Common vegetables (raw)
• winged bean (propieay), 5cm pieces
• small round eggplant (trop sruoy), quartered
• pea eggplant (trop pout nyong), whole
• water hyacinth flowers (phka komplauk), de-stemmed
• water lily stems (prolut), 5cm pieces
• rice paddy herb (sa’om), whole
  baby corn (kon pout), whole
• young water mimosa (konchaet), whole
• cucumber (trasok), sliced