A couple weeks ago, Tim found a very old, barely used meat grinder at the thrift store down the street.  It has a manual crank and is 100% metal with quality construction that’s hard to find nowadays.  He bought it right away and though we’ve already made our own ground beef burgers and chicken patties, he’s really looking forward to making his own sausages.

It got me thinking about my mom’s homemade sausages.  She would make them now and then, stuffing the casing with a plastic funnel and chopstick. It was long, tedious work, but boy, those sausages were delicious!  I flipped through my Cambodian cookbook, The Elephant Walk, and was delighted to see that it had a recipe for saik krok khmer but the ingredient list was quite long and the entire process intimidating.  I went online to search for more Cambodian sausage recipes and to see if they were all similar. Instead, I stumbled upon a site that was selling homemade saik krok! Actually, she called them kwah ko and I’m not quite sure what that means.  In Khmer, saik means meat so saik chrouk = pig meat (pork), saik mouan = chicken meat, and saik ko = cow meat (beef). I think kwah ko might mean “beef sausage” (she was selling beef sausages whereas the recipe in my book was for pork), and kwah may just be a word I don’t know.  I’ve always known saik krok to mean “sausage meat” and beef sausage would be specified as saik krok ko while pork would be saik krok chrouk but enough with the language lesson!

Anyway, I placed the minimum order which was for 50 links at 2/$1.  Shipping was another $10.  I received my order a couple days later and the smell and color brought back childhood memories.  However, the links were smaller than I expected, about the size of a fat baby dill pickle; I was just used to the larger links my mother made.  Also, each link wasn’t really tied off or twisted tightly, just loosely separated by string.

Cambodian Sausage Links

No matter, I simply cut them up at the ties, removed the string, and placed them on my electric grill:

Getty ready to feel the burn!

They cook up pretty quickly:

The smell was mouth-watering.

Now, I expected some grease to come out and drain off, but I didn’t realize so much would come off!  Normally, if these were twisted off and tied as oppose to having cut ends, all that grease would be trapped inside the casing.  That’s how most people eat them!  You can’t really tell from this picture, but the drip tray collected an insane amount of grease:

That's about 3/4 inch of grease!

Tim was put off by the grease and didn’t really eat any of the sausages.  He eats a lot healthier than I do, and while I prefer fattier cuts of meat (especially pork), he’s lean and trim all the way.  Oh well, more for Vuthy!

I had the sausages (6 links total) with white jasmine rice.  They were pretty similar to my mother’s homemade sausages: meaty, a bit oily, and citrus-y.  I don’t quite know how to describe the taste.   Some say sour but that’s not quite it.  Tart, perhaps? They are suppose to get more so as days go by.  I believe it’s the combination of lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and other herbs and spices that go into the mix.  It’s not a taste everyone will like, but I love ‘em and finished off the other 6 links the next day.

A simple, delicious meal in my book!.

I’ll be buying more once I go through the other 40 or so links. Hopefully, that will take a while.

The next picture is not of the sausages but is an example of another simple Cambodian meal.  When we were tight on time or money, my parents would make us fried eggs with dipping sauce.  The fried eggs are simply eggs cracked onto a very hot, oiled skillet. The hot oil ensured that the whites would get thin and crispy.  I always pop my yolks to make sure they are fully cooked because I don’t like runny yolks. The fried eggs would then be served with white rice and a dipping sauce of minced garlic, fish sauce, and tamarind.  It’s fast, easy, cheap and delicious. I don’t often need more than that.

Simple, crispy fried eggs.

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White rice with water spinach and chilies in oyster sauce.

I’m a big carnivore.  I don’t find a meal to be very satisfying unless it has meat in it, so it’s quite rare for me to enjoy the dish pictured above.

I was in the Asian market the other day and noticed that they had water spinach for sale.  It’s not something that’s always available so I grabbed a bunch.  In Khmer, it’s called tha guon.  It has various other names but you’ll most commonly see it referred to as water spinach or morning glory because it’s part of the same family.  It’s quite popular in Cambodian dishes as part of a sour soup and is often paired with pork or fish.

A lovely bunch of raw water spinach.

It was sitting in my fridge for 2 days before I finally decided to do something with it. I didn’t have the patience or ingredients for a soup, so I wanted to find something simple.  After browsing a few of my favorite Asian food blogs, I decided to just simply stir fry it in oyster sauce.  A popular Thai restaurant near me has that on the menu as a side dish though I have never ordered it.

So after washing, trimming and snapping the longer stems in half, I stir fried the tha guon in a bit of oil and minced garlic before adding some oyster sauce and chopped Thai chilies.  It was quick and easy, with the end result being so yummy that I didn’t miss the meat at all.  Water spinach is very “meaty” in itself, with hollow stems that retain their crunchiness when cooked and chewy leaves that soak up the sauce.  Maybe one day I’ll cook it up proper and make a Cambodian soup with it.

Speaking of meat, though I don’t know if I would call it that, today I bought a big, thick slice of beef liver that was on special at Ralphs since it was going to be past the sell-by date tomorrow.  The piece was huge and looked almost like a juicy steak, but it was nothing of the sort.  I took it out of the packaging and it was slippery and floppy.  It makes me shudder just thinking about the texture.

I pan fried it whole and then sliced it up.  My entire apartment ended up smelling like liver which is not a good thing!  I do not like the smell, texture or taste of liver at all.  So why did I buy it in the first place?

Freshly sliced liver ready to be wolfed down in less than a minute.

My dogs will eat almost anything, not that I think they even taste it to begin with.  Penny inhales her food like a Dirt Devil vacuum.  In fact, I only sliced up the liver because if I gave her one big piece, she’ll just try and swallow it whole.  It’s unbelievable how they will whine and drool for things that aren’t normal dog food, and yet once they get it, it’s just GULP GONE.  Jesse actually took her time and chewed, but once she noticed that Penny had finished, she started eating faster and gulping down 3 or 4 pieces at once.  I guess my dogs love their meat almost as much as I do.

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I’m a domesticated diva!

Okay, maybe not quite. I don’t cook without looking up recipes and am working on the whole cleaning thing, but being home has made me a tad more domesticated. I am cooking a lot more often, gardening, and trying new “crafty” things. I even plan to do a little wall painting once the weather is drier!

The day I had my wisdom tooth out, I was told that I could not eat any solid foods nor hot foods. A friend suggested I make Cambodian rice porridge. This is something I haven’t had since I was a child; “borbo” is very common in Khmer households. It’s made quite often, especially when someone is sick, and for special occasions like going to Temple. I didn’t remember how to make it since I only made it once or twice with my mother. I did some Googling and found recipes were it was mixed with meats or fish and had to fudge around a bit to make a recipe for plain borbo. It’s rather bland, which is the point, since once it’s done you add whatever you want to it such as cooked chicken, pork, shrimp, green onions, soy sauce, fish sauce, etc. Many Cambodians like eating it with a dash of soy sauce, but since I’ve never been a big fan of soy sauce, I ate it with fish sauce and at times, fried eggs and clams. You really can add anything you want to it!

Khmer Rice Porridge aka Borbo

Khmer Rice Porridge (borbo)

• 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 1 chopped onion
• 1/2 inch grated ginger
• 10 cups water

A word of warning: This makes a large amount! It lasted me 3 days.

In a large stockpot, brown the raw rice in the oil.  You can tell it’s ready when the rice is a light golden brown.  While I was doing this, I flashbacked to my childhood and remembered vividly doing this for my mother and how much I hated it because it’s tedious and takes a long time to roast the rice.  I would run and hide whenever my mother wanted me to help make borbo, which is why I didn’t remember how to make it.

When the rice is ready, mix in the garlic, onion, and ginger.  Cook for about a minute until the garlic gets fragrant.  It should smell really good right about now.  Add the water and cook on medium heat.  Once it boils, cover and lower to simmer. Continue cooking to your degree of thickness.  The longer you cook it, the thicker the porridge will get.  Some people prefer their borbor watery while others like it thick.  When it’s at your liking, remove, let cook a bit, and eat with your choice of seasonings and add-ons.

At one point, I added in some clams I had bought from Trader Joe’s.  They were frozen, fully cooked, and ready to steam in the microwave.  It was really easy and really good for just $4!

Yummy, inexpensive clams from TJ

Other recent purchases that I’ve been really happy about are my new coffee grinder and French press.  It really does make a huge difference in the quality of coffee when you grind your own beans fresh and then brew the grounds in a French press (as opposed to a drip coffee machine).

The coffee grinder is from Amazon, French press if from Ross

To make a great, fresh cup of coffee:

1. Grind 2 rounded tablespoons of coffee beans coarsely, about 5 - 6 seconds.
2. Put the grounds plus 8 ounces of hot water into the coffee press.  Give it a stir with a plastic utensil (natural oils will stick to metal and get lost).
3. Put the lid on the press but do not plunge down. Wait 4 minutes.
4. After 4 minutes, push the plunger down.  The coffee grounds will be separated from the coffee and pushed to the bottom.
5. Pour into a cup and enjoy!

I know it’s called a French press because you’re pressing down, but for some reason the word plunge seems better to me.

Waiting to be plunged - okay - pressed!

The grinder was $20 on Amazon and the press was $4 at Ross.  It’s really a great deal for a great cup of coffee.

Okay, there’s a lot more I wanted to share, like my recent roasted asparagus dish (I followed someone’s recipe and it came out divine!) and pictures of my ranunculus plant, but this entry is already pretty long so I’ll save that for a separate one.

Time for bed!

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Thuk Kroeung

Thuk kroeung (or thuk krung)is a popular Cambodia dish that is usually used as a dip for fresh, raw vegetables. Thuk means liquid in Khmer, though it can also mean water or wet. (Moik thuk means to take a shower and puhk thuk means to drink water while thuk dah co means milk or literally “liquid of cow breast.”)

I had been craving thuk kroeung for weeks now.  I haven’t had it in years, though it was a very common dish in our house when I was a child. I had no idea how to make it, and I did find a recipe on Khmer Krom Recipes but the picture of a watery dip was nothing like what I remember from my childhood.

I asked a Khmer friend if she knew how to make that “chunky fish dip we have with vegetables” and when she said “you mean like tuna salad but stinkier?” I knew she would be able to help!  So using our scattered IM-conversation mixed with a bit of improvisation, I was about to make thuk kroeung tonight, and you know what, I came very close to what my mother used to make!  My version is a bit saltier than what I remember and oops :-(  I forgot to pick out the bones from the prahok.  You would think my friend would have been wise enough to include all the little details for a novice like me but noooooooooo!

Anyway, the recipe:

• 1 can of mackerel, skin in, in natural oils, drained well
• several cloves of minced garlic
• minced hot chilies to taste
• a handful of diced mint leaves (optional)
• juice of 1 lime
• teaspoons of sugar to taste
• a big dollop of prahok mixed with boiling water, do not forget to pick out the bones
  - or - you can just use creamy style prahok from the store

1. Brown the mackerel with the garlic and chilies
2. In a big mortar, mash the mackerel mixture in with the prahok/water mixture
3. Mix in lime juice and mint leaves
4. Add sugar to taste
5. Mix in lime juice

Serve with fresh vegetables.  It’s usually better with harder vegetables such as cucumbers, broccoli, green eggplants, asparagus, etc.  Also, in my recipe above, people usually don’t add the mint leaves but I had some lying around so I figured “why not?” and people often add in MSG (which I don’t have) and some sort of bitter tasting veggie, usually this leafy vegetable called sadow or little baby eggplants that look almost like peas or some other type of roasted vegetable, all of which gets mashed into the mixture.

Anyway, I’m damn happy with my first attempt and look forward to making this more often. Yum!

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