Greetings everyone,

Soup with fried fish would be the simplest yet very popular Cambodian food. Fish soup means fragrance with a mixture of lemongrass, kreung and other vegetables like luffa and green leaves make the soup smells amazingly fresh. The soup is very popular among Cambodian people, especially those who grow their own vegetables or live in the countryside. For me I got those vegetables from local market which growing in local area.

Ingredients

• Ivy leaves
• lemongrass
• fish
• luffa
• Garlic
• Prohok
• Kreung ( Lemongrass paste )
• Seasoning 🧂 ( salt, sugar, soup powder )

Kreung process

Before we start to cook our soup, first I would like you show you how make Kreung ( lemongrass paste ).

Ingredients to make lemongrass paste

• 1/2 tablespoon of shallot

• 1/2 cup peeled garlic cloves

• 16 lemongrass stalks

• 1 piece fresh turmeric (or 2 tsp. powdered turmeric)

• 1 piece galangal (or 3 garlic cloves)

• 7 whole (double-segment) lime leaves (or use 4 tbsp. lime zest plus 1/2 tsp )

How to make it ✍️

• Firstly, Chop shallot and garlic then, Remove root end, leafy top, and 3 to 4 fibrous outer layers of lemongrass stalks. Thinly slice enough lemongrass to make 1 1/4 cups, then mince in a food processor with shallot and garlic.

• Secondly, Peel fresh turmeric and galangal; coarsely chop both. Remove central stems from lime leaves and coarsely chop leaves. Add turmeric, galangal, and lime leaves to processor and whirl into a very fine paste with 2 to 3 tbsp. water, about 7 minutes. Actually we often see the recipe with lemongrass paste and prohok. This two things always goes well together in Khmer recipe.

Preparation

Step 1

Fry the fish: If the oil is ready, gently place the fish in the hot oil. Fry the fish on one side for approximately 6 minutes and the other for another 6 minutes. Once the fish is golden brown, remove from the oil and sprinkle with salt. Then, I like to set it aside.

Step 2

Prepare vegetable: Wash luffa and trim away all the ridges with a knife then, Cut the luffa. I find it the easiest to hold the luffa above a bowl and cut the pieces while turning the luffa.

Prepare Ivy leaves: Ivy leave is easy to cook so, we can cut it into a big or small piece as we prefer. Washing the leaves for many times and then set it aside too.

Step 3

Cook prohok & Kreung: Boiling the water in one large pot, when the water boiled we add the lemongrass, prohok and Kreung into the pot and Stir it together. Let’s simmer for 5 minutes.

Step 4

Add garlic: While waiting for it to simmer, we should chop the garlic into small piece and transfer it to the pot with adding 1/3 tablespoon of salt, 1/3 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 tablespoon of soup powder.

Step 5

Bring fried fish to boil: After we boiled the ingredients for 5 minutes, transfer the fish that we have already fried into the pot over medium heat.

Step 6

Add luffa: Now, it’s time to bring luffa to boil. Carefully put it into the pot and stir it together with fish. We need to simmer it about 2-3 minutes make sure that the luffa turn soft.

Step 7

Cook Ivy leaves: After the luffa is getting soft, bring all the Ivy leaves into the boiling pot over low heat.

Step 8

Taste the soup: Before we plated it in the bowl let’s add some more salt or soup powder as you prefer.

Lastly, plate the soup, cover with the chili as to make it more colorful.