Saturday, October 25, 2008

MKMW: Cambodia

My Kitchen, My World underwent a change recently. Susan handed over responsibilities to Lauren of I’ll Eat You. Being in charge of several blogging events is very time-consuming, so it’s understandable.



For Lauren’s first event, she chose Cambodia, rather a mysterious country with lots of history. While there are many Asian-themed restaurants in most communities, it’s difficult to find one that showcases Cambodian, or Khmer, food. I had to do some searching in various places, and finally found a recipe for which I had all the ingredients on hand: Khmer Coconut Pork Skewers (Saik Chrouk Ch’ranouitk). I won’t even begin to pronounce that.


I made one major change. Because I don’t have a grill, I just marinated the meat and stir-fried it. It was still delicious. I also dug into my stash of unsweetened coconut, although I can be somewhat generous with it now. When I was in Nebraska in September, the local HyVee grocery store had a whole shelf full of unsweetened coconut, both grated and shredded. I stocked up.



I’m not sure how many of the MKMW bloggers “went” to Cambodia this week, but it’s certainly worth a visit to find out.






Khmer Coconut Pork Skewers (Saik Chrouk Ch'ranouitk)


  • 1 stalk Lemon Grass, thinly sliced
  • 1 large Onion, chopped
  • 5 Garlic Cloves, chopped
  • The grated Zest of 1 Lime
  • 1/2 teasp Ground Turmeric
  • 90ml/3fl.oz. Water
  • 25g/2oz freshly grated Coconut or unsweetened Desiccated Coconut
  • 1 tbsp Sugar
  • 1/2 teasp Salt 400g/14oz Lean Pork, cut into 2.5cm/1-inch cubes

1. Place the lemon grass, onion, garlic, lime zest, turmeric and water in a food processor and process to a paste.

2. Transfer the lemon grass paste to a mixing bowl

together with the coconut, sugar and salt and mix well.

3. Add the pork and mix to coat well. Cover and marinate for at least an hour at room temperature. (If longer, refrigerate.)


4. Preheat the grill to hot. Thread the pork cubes onto skewers and cook for 15-20 minutes, turning frequently and basting with the marinade. Serve immediately.


Also very good on the barbecue.



Serves 4.


6 comments:

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Our son travel through Cambodia about two years ago and found it a stunningly beautiful country with wonderful friendly people.
Bite size pork on skewers, that's a delight!

Megan said...

I actually dropped out of MKMW - it was getting too hard to find dishes from all of the different countries.

You, however, always come up with something interesting and delicious!

Moderator MKMW said...

Your recipe sounds simple and delicious- I have to try a coconut and pork combo sometime soon!

Dewi said...

Sounds simply delicious!
I also like to stock up ingredients, though I might not need it now, I know I do one day.

Rachel said...

I'm glad you will be joining us for the Cook the Books Book Club this round. I really enjoyed reading La Cucina and am now having loads of fun researching Sicilian cooking and deciding what to cook from the book!

The trip to Cambodia sounds like fun. I have bookmarked this recipe to try out on some fish kebabs!

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