Special Cookware

For my 'Swimming to Cambodia' dinner, I think I have all the cookware I need. Many of the appetizers will be baked in the oven. I will probably make the Lemongrass Soup in my crockpot, and the Jasmine Rice in my electric rice cooker. The rest will be prepared stovetop in my wok, or on my 2-burner cast-iron grill pan. And for serving, I have a buffet warmer and a hot plate to keep things warm during dinner.

01:33 PM PST Permalink |

Cambodian Beverages

Most of the Cambodian beverages I've been able to discover are fruit based concoctions like blended smoothies and tropical punch. Cambodia also has a national brewery, however, I doubt that I will be able to find any Cambodian beer here in town. So I may have to settle for something more widely distributed like TsingTao. And I may even serve a lightly sweet wine such as White Zinfandel or Johannesburg Riesling. The flavors of Cambodian food are quite similar to Thai food, with lots of coconut milk and ginger, both of which go well with sweeter wines. Hibiscus tea also sounds tasty. So...Maybe I will serve a variety of several different beverages.

12:04 AM PST Permalink |

Designing a Cambodian Table Setting

Tropical Southeast Asia will be the motif for my 'Swimming to Cambodia' table setting. I will be using lots of bamboo and hardwood serving dishes, colorful textiles, and maybe some tropical blossoms and foliage. Oh yes, and lots of candles.

03:12 AM PST Permalink |

A Little Background Info on the Films

For this month's Dinner & a Movie, I have chosen two films: The Killing Fields, and Swimming to Cambodia, both of which I have seen and loved. The Killing Fields tells the gut-wrenching story of the fall of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, under the tyranny of the Khmer Rouge. And Swimming to Cambodia is raconteur Spalding Gray's one-man narrative of his search for the perfect moment during his experiences while filming The Killing Fields, in which he played a small role as the U.S. consul. It has been years since I've seen those two films, so I am looking forward to watching them again and sharing them with my dinner guests.

12:14 AM PST Permalink |

A Little Background Info on Cambodian History & Culture

At the moment, I am woefully behind on my cultural histories of all the countries I've featured in my Dinner & a Movie project (after all, these things take time). But when I finally get caught up on my writing, I will be posting a full history and cultural profile of Cambodia. In the meantime, ThingsAsian features more than 50 articles about Cambodia. Here are links to several good ones:

Cambodia.

Cambodia on the Web.

Journey to Angkor.

Exploring Cambodia.

04:19 PM PST Permalink |

Tracking down exotic ingredients

I need nuoc mam.

Also known as nam pla, patis and Asian fish sauce, since I've been doing my Dinner & a Movie project every month, it has become one of my favorite ingredients. I use it in all my Asian sauces, marinades and stir-fry dishes now, and it is especially delicious on Asian vegetables. So it's no wonder that I've gone through two large bottles of it in less than a year.

I ordered those first two bottles from AsianFoodGrocer.com, along with a huge shipment of other Asian ingredients, so shipping was free. But I'm pretty well stocked with everything else, so it hardly makes sense to order so few items when I can buy them locally. I've already located a source for nuoc mam at a grocer uptown, although I will probably have to pay double for it since it is considered a gourmet item in my provincial little corner of the world. I also need lemongrass, coconut milk and jasmine rice, all of which are readily available locally as well. Everything else I need for my 'Swimming to Cambodia' dinner is pretty standard fare.

12:04 AM PST Permalink |

A list of Ingredients for My 'Swimming to Cambodia' Dinner

Specialty Ingredients:

Asian fish sauce (Nuoc Mam, Nam Pla, Patis, etc.)
soy sauce
turmeric
coconut milk
kaffir lime leaves
palm sugar
honey
chili powder
jasmine rice
rice paper wrappers
rice wine vinegar
oyster sauce
chili paste
chili oil

Fresh Ingredients:

chicken wings
chicken breasts
pork ribs
white fish
shrimp
scallions
unsweetened flaked coconut
lemongrass
shallots
garlic
ginger root
limes
lemons
chiles
basil
onion
red bell pepper
mint
cole slaw mix
carrots
baby corn
bok choy
mushrooms
broccoli
mango
papaya
pineapple
mandarin oranges

Basics:

sugar
salt
pepper
brown sugar
ketchup
vegetable oil
flour
eggs
cornstarch

12:04 AM PST Permalink |

Deciding on the Dishes for My 'Swimming to Cambodia' Dinner

Appetizers:
Cambodian Fish Cakes
Sweet & Spicy Pork Ribs
Ginger Chicken Wings
Pork Skewers with Coconut
Fresh Spring Rolls with Ginger Dipping Sauce
Pickled Vegetable Medley

Soup:
Lemongrass Broth with Chicken and Rice

Salad:
Marinated Seafood with Mango Salsa over Cambodian Cole Slaw

Main Course:
Carmelized Shrimp
White Fish Steamed in Banana Leaves (Amok Trei)
Vegetable Stir-Fry Medley with Baby Corn
Jasmine Rice

Dessert:
Coconut Pudding with Tropical Fruits

01:37 AM PST Permalink |

Designing the Menu

For my Swimming to Cambodia dinner, I am going to rely on my standard five-course formula: several appetizers, a soup, a salad, two entrees with vegetables and a starch, followed by a light dessert. (And lots of leftovers!). The appetizer recipes I found are all so tempting that I think I'm going to make four or five of them, and the rest of the dishes look so simple that I'm not worried about overkill.

Everything sounds so delicious that I want to try it all, and I have the dinner scheduled for a Saturday night during Spring Break, so my son Will is going to be here, and possibly a couple of his ravenous friends. So I am confident that no matter how many dishes I prepare, not a single bite of it will go to waste.

12:06 AM PST Permalink |

Getting Acquainted with Cambodian Cuisine

Having spent the better part of an evening researching Cambodian cuisine and recipes, it appears that when it comes to Cambodian food...anything goes. The bounty of ingredients in typical Cambodian dishes includes nearly every kind of vegetable, meat and seafood imaginable. Spices and condiments are consistent with other Southeast Asian cuisines, including Asian fish sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, coconut, lime, mint, corriander, basil, lemongrass, chili peppers, kafir lime leaves, curry powder, and sesame oil, just to name a few.

A dish called Amok Trei, seasoned fish or meats steamed in banana leaf parcels, is considered by some to be the national dish of Cambodia.

Appetizers (Mahope-Sra) include spring rolls, both fresh and deep fried, grilled chicken wings, skewered meats, dumplings, frog legs, fried seafoods, and fish cakes.

Soups (Salor) tend to be broth-based, such as hot and sour, or savory stews, featuring a seemingly endless variety of vegetables such as winter melon, spinach, taro root, cabbage, mushrooms, as well as all kinds of meats and seafoods. And Rice Soup (Bor-Bo), is a traditional favorite.

Salads (Nhoam and Lap) are often topped with meats or marinated seafoods.

There are an infinite number of Stir-fry combinations (Char), many of which are categorized as Caramelized (Kho).

Deep-fried dishes (Chien) are popular and widely varied, as are steamed dishes (Chamhoy), boiled dishes (Sngo), grilled meats and fish (Dot), as well as those that are baked or broiled (Ang).

Fried Rice (Bai Lieng) and Fried Noodles or Noodle Soups (Num Pa-Chok, Mee, Katiev Char) are everyday staples.

Many dishes are served with tangy dipping sauces (Tirk Salouk), which are made with lime juice and fish sauce, seasoned with ginger, chili peppers, garlic and other seasonings.

Desserts often take the form of puddings and custards, made with coconut and fresh fruits.

With all these tempting ingredients and preparation methods to choose from, the hardest part of my Cambodian dinner is definitely going to be choosing between them without getting completely carried away.

12:06 AM PST Permalink |

Cambodian Recipes in My Cookbooks

Among the many cookbooks in my library, only Corinne Trang's Essentials of Asian Cuisine has any Cambodian recipes. This handy volume, which has served me faithfully through many Asian meals, has quite a few choices, however, only one appealed to me: a pickled vegetable recipe that I am definitely going to include in my menu.

12:03 AM PST Permalink |

Looking for Cambodian Recipes

I had no idea when I began searching for recipes on the Internet what a trove of Cambodian recipes I would find. Unbeknownst to me, Cambodian food is wildly popular, and a simple keyword search for 'cambodia recipes' turned up 162,000 hits. I only had to visit a few of the top sites to discover more than enough recipes for a five-course Cambodian dinner. So, with remarkably little effort, I have already begun to develop my Swimming to Cambodia dinner menu.

10:04 PM PST Permalink |

My Cambodian Cooking Experience

When it comes to Cambodian food, once again, I am an absolute beginner. I have never eaten in a Cambodian restaurant, I've never seen a Cambodian cookbook, I have never studied Cambodian culture or history, and I have no idea what kind of food the Cambodian people eat. But something tells me all that's about to change.

Thirty days from now, I will have done all those things, perhaps with the exception of eating in a Cambodian restaurant. But I am confident that with a little research, I can pull off an authentic Cambodian dinner. After all, my Tibetan, Iranian, and Filipino dinners were delicious culinary successes, all of which I prepared with no previous experience.

06:54 PM PST Permalink |

Dinner & a Movie for the Month of March

Welcome to Dinner & a Movie for the Month of March. This month, I am excited to be featuring the cuisine of Cambodia, and not one but two excellent films: The Killing Fields, and Swimming to Cambodia.

Having spent the past two week on vacation, and the past two days writing film reviews for Cinequest 15, I am a little behind with wrapping up my Road Home Dinner & a Movie. So...without further ado, here are the links to all the Recipes and Photos, as well as my film review of The Road Home.

06:36 PM PST Permalink |

Almost Heaven...

We awoke to the most glorious spring morning that ever dawned in the town of Merced, just 70 miles from Yosemite Valley. I have oft marvelled at how I could have lived in California for more than 20 years, just four hours' drive away and had never visited it. But perhaps I was wise to wait for this very day.

A pastoral drive along Highway 140 took us up a gentle grade that leads straight to El Portal, a vertical granite rockface that rises nearly 2000 feet into the rarefied air above the Sierra Nevada. And from there on, around every curve, the geography and geology becomes more spectacular, magnificent, stunning, breathtaking, awesome... [I'm already running out of inadequate adjectives to describe it].

Yesterday's snowfall was still glistening pristine in the crisp mountain air, while the rays of the sun overhead warmed the snow-capped peaks to feed the cascading deluge of Bridal Veil and Yosemite Falls. We snapped untold quantities of digital photos and shot endless video footage of peak after lofty peak. And at every turn, I couldn't help thinking that Mother Nature wasn't fooling around when she wrought this piece of heaven on earth.

Toward the end of our tour of the valley, we discovered an alluring footpath, upon which a 15-minute walk through a lush and chilly Sequoia grove brought us right to the base of Yosemite Falls. In that moment, gazing up at all that water, plummeting down that sheer granite gorge, we filled our lungs with the ionized air, and renewed our spirits with the energy and the experience of standing on one of the most hallowed places on earth.

02:19 AM PST Permalink |