Nom Banh Chok is a traditional Cambodian recipe for a classic breakfast ish of rice noodles served topped with a fish curry. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Cambodian version of: Nom Banh Chok.
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Nom banh chok is a popular Cambodian breakfast dish of freshly-cooked rice noodles and fish curry. Nom banh chok is typically prepared using mudfish, kreung (the citrusy Cambodian curry paste) and coconut milk. The nom banh chok broth is served over freshly cooked rice noodles (known as “Khmer noodles”), crisp raw vegetables, a selection of herbs, and edible flowers. Sesbania is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, and the only genus found in tribe Sesbanieae. Riverhemp is a common name for plants in this genus. Notable species include the rattlebox (Sesbania punicea), spiny sesbania (Sesbania bispinosa), and Sesbania sesban, which is used in cooking. Sesbania bispinosa is the species whose flowers are used in Cambodian cuisine.
Ingredients:
For the Fish curry:
1/2 teaspoon palm Sugar
400ml (1 tin) Coconut milk
1/2 tbsp Prahok (fermented fish paste), though some versions of this dish may call for kapi, or shrimp paste
1/2 tsp Salt
3l Cold water
3cm piece of fresh Turmeric root
3 Lemongrass sticks
5 Kaffir lime leaves
5 Garlic cloves
1 Mudfish (medium sized, approximately 500g) any freshwater fish will do, scaled, gutted and washed
3cm piece of Galangal
3 Fingerroot
2 spring onions
2 chillies
500g Rice noodles (Bun Tuoi dry rice vermicelli works well)
Herbs and condiments for serving:
Banana flower to taste
Bean sprouts to taste
Sesbania blossoms to taste
Cucumbers to taste
Green chillies to taste
Thai basil to taste
Coriander to taste
Any other fresh herbs or seasonal vegetables of your choosing, to taste
Fish sauce, to taste
Method:
Bring a large pan of water to a boil. Add the fish and cook for 20 minutes. Add a pinch of salt to the fish.
Cut the lemongrass into thin slices and place into a mortar. Clean and thinly slice the galangal, turmeric, fingerroot, chillies, and garlic cloves, and place in the mortar.
Shred the kaffir lime leaves and add to the mortar.
Pound the ingredients in the mortar using a pestle until you achieve a paste-like consistency.
Remove the fish from the boiling water and set aside.
Strain the water in which you boiled the fish through a sieve then pour back into its pan.
Separate the fish meat from the skin and skeleton, ensuring that you discard all the bones. Add the fish meat to the mortar with the kreung paste, but discard the bones, skin, and head.
Gently pound the fish meat together with the kreung paste until you create an even paste of all ingredients.
Boil 200ml (half a tin) of the coconut milk in a large pot over medium heat. Add the fish mixture to the boiling coconut milk and mix together.
Place the fish stock into the pot and mix all the ingredients together. Add the prahok to the pot and stir. Stir in the other half of the coconut milk tin and mix all the ingredients together. Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan and stir.
Cook the resulting fish curry for 15 minutes over medium heat. Slice the spring onions and add them to the fish curry just before turning the heat off. Remove the fish curry from the heat.
Boil the rice noodles until soft (usually 10 minutes), then remove from heat and strain.
Arrange julienned cucumbers, along with herbs and greens of your choice, in large serving bowls (1 per diner). Distribute the boiled rice noodles among the diners' bowls, placing them on top of the vegetables.
Pour the fish curry over top of the rice noodles.
Sprinkle the sesbania flowers over top of the fish curry and serve.
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