Tamarind Water

Sometimes called Tamarind purée. To make this soak a ping-pong ball sized piece of Tamarind pulp (with all it's seeds) in 120ml of hot water, or 3 tbsp in 225ml of hot water, until soft.Squeeze the pulp repeatedly with your fingers to dissolve it and then pour the lot into a strainer, forcing the liquid through with the back of a spoon. Discard the fibrous material and just use the thick liquid.



It's a right palaver but worth the effort for the taste it adds. But because it takes some effort, I tend to make up a whole 'brick' of the stuff in one go and use ice-cube freezer bags to store the surplus in the freezer for later.

Banana Flower recipe

Variously described as Banana Flower or Banana Blossom, this salad recipe comes from the Cuisine of Cambodia by Nusara Thaitawat a beautifully presented book with stunning photography by Somkid Chaijitvanit and Yingyong Un-anongrak. Unfortunately it's currently out of print, otherwise I'd post link to buy it.


Nhoam Tra - Yaung Chek Banana Flower Salad


Ingredients
200g of banana flower/blossom, thinly sliced
100g cabbage and/or carrot, grated (optional)
100g of shredded pre-cooked chicken (boiled)
a third of a cup of dried shrimps, soaked, drained and pounded coarsely*
a third of a cup of peanuts, roasted, skinned and pounded coarsely
half a cup of Chi (chee)

Dressing
2tbsp Fish sauce
2tbsp sugar
1 and a half tbsp lime juice
1-2 birds-eye chillies

The Chi mentioned in the ingredients list is a mix of five herbs: Chi Ang-Kam (mint), Chi Ta-Puo (a.k.a. Ma-Luong), Chi Neang Vorng (basil) Chi Saing-Hum (a.k.a. Porng-Tea-Kaun) and Chi Ma-Hao (Pennywort/Fishwort), with the mint and Basil being the most important. Which is lucky as the other three can still be a little difficult to track down outside Asia. Although they are increasingly available in Asian speciality stores. Ideally you would mix equal quantities of the five with the basil and mint being left whole while the longer leaves are included chopped. Pictures of the various salad herbs can be found at satrey khmer.

Discard the hard pink outer cover of the Banana Blossom. Slice the blossom horizontally into thin strips and then immediately rinse in diluted lime juice to prevent them turning black. The pollen will usually float to the surface and should be spooned out and discarded.

The addition of grated carrot or cabbage is not absolutely authentic but many Cambodian families and restaurants do add it to give a splash of extra colour to the dish.

Toss the banana blossom, cabbage/carrot and dried shrimps, roasted peanuts and Chi together and add the dressing immediately before serving.

To make the dressing pound the garlic and chili with a pestle and mortar. If you like it hot add two or more chillies, then the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice.

*Dried shrimps, a core ingredient, must always be washed and soaked for about 15 minutes before being ground in either a clay mortar or electric mixer.