Fish-sauce dressing
5 garlic cloves
3 red chilies (optional)
½ cup fish sauce
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup sugar
A pinch of salt
Pound the garlic and chilies in a
mortar. Spoon out and place the garlic/chili mixture in a bowl. Add the
remaining ingredients, mix well. Taste and adjust accordingly.
Note: Except for beef and fish salads (the pleah variety), this fish-sauce dressing is used in majority of Khmer salads (ngiom) and a few relishes (chrourk). You can also use it as a dipping sauce for boiled/broiled
seafood. Drizzle some fish-sauce dressing over broiled or deep-fried whole fish
and serve it with some sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.
To start, here's a very popular salad:
 |
| Cambodian Cabbage Salad |
1 cabbage, about 2 pounds, quartered and
thinly sliced
3/4 pound boiled chicken breast,
shredded
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced into
matchsticks
4 medium shallots, thinly sliced
3 oz bean thread soaked in hot water
for 30 minutes and drained (optional)
1 red or orange bell pepper, thinly
sliced (optional)
A bunch of mint and basil leaves
1/3 cup of roasted peanuts, roughly
ground
1/3 cup fish-sauce dressing
In a large bowl, toss everything
together, setting aside the peanuts and the dressing. When you’re ready to eat, toss the salad
with the dressing and sprinkle with peanuts and serve.
Note: The traditional recipe calls for chicken, but you can also make it with boiled pork belly or shrimp or a combination of all three.
Another salad, with apples as the main star:
 |
| Apple Salad |
3/4 lb. boiled shrimp, peeled
3 large Granny Smith apples, julienned
3 medium shallots, or 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Some mint leaves
Some basil leaves
¼ cup roasted peanuts, coarsely
ground
¼ cup fish-sauce dressing
Toss apples, shallots, shrimp, mint
and basil leaves together. Add the dressing and toss again. Sprinkle with peanuts
and serve.
Note: Use crunchy apples, the sourer the apples, the better.
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