Teuk Kreung

ទឹកគ្រឿង - {Teuk Kreung}

Preparation time - 30 mins

Cooking time - 1 hour

Teuk Kreung is a very famous Cambodian dish. It is a kind of dipping sauce that has a fish base accompanied by many fresh raw seasonal vegetables like sdao, phka snou, phka kamplaok and others. Teuk Kreung special uniqueness comes from its unique strong taste of fish, prohok, and tamarind. But the combination and contrast of fresh raw vegetables makes the whole thing unforgettable. Teuk Kreung is one of the dishes I miss most when I travel outside of Cambodia.

Ingredients -Serve 6-8

• Snackhead fish (fillet): 500g
• Prahok: 100g
• Tamarind flesh: 100g
• Pea eggplants: 150g
• Garlic: 10 cloves
• Shallots: 5-6 pieces
• Chili: 2-3 pieces
• Cucumber: 2 pieces
• Palm sugar: 1 tablespoon
• Salt: 1 teaspoon
• Fish sauce: 2 tablespoons
• Salt: 1/2 teaspoon
• Cucumber: 2 pieces
• Round eggplant (trop Sruoy): 4-5 pieces
• Sdao: 100g
• Young Kanh-chaet: 100g
• Phka Kamplaok: 5-6 stems
• Phka Snau: 100g
• Asain basil: 2 stems
• Saw basil: 5-6 leaves

Snackhead fish (fillet): Bring 1 and a half cups of water to boil and then cook the fish for 10 minutes. Take out to rest. Then use pestle and mortar to pound the fish quite finely.
Prahok: Put Prahok in the same fish broth and turn heat up for 2 more minutes, stir continually until the prahok is combined with the water.
Tamarin flesh: Soak in half cup of warm water, squeeze with hand or spoon to dissolve with water and take stringy parts out.
Pea eggplants: take stem off
Garlic and shallots: Peel
Chili: stem off
Put a frying pan on medium heat add a teaspoon of cooking oil. Put pea eggplant, garlic, shallots and chili in the pan and fry until they turn brown. Turn heat off. Then pound all of them with the fish.
In a large soup bowl, put the mixture of fish, eggplants, garlic, shallots and chili in then add tamarind, palm sugar, salt, fish sauce and Prohok broth in and mix well and wait to serve.
Vegetables
Sdao: boil a cup of water in pot and soak Sdao in for a minute and place in a bowl of cold water and then take out to drain.
Cucumber: Wash and cut into small pieces
Round eggplant (trop Sruoy): Wash and cut into quarter
Young Kanh-chaet, Phka Kamplaok and Phka Snau: wash well and drain
Asian basil and saw basil: wash well and cut about 1cm

To serve:
Place all vegetables nicely on a plate or flat bamboo basket and pour Teuk Kreung in a small bowl. Then sprinkle cut basil and saw mint to garnish. Take one vegetable at a time or multiple and dip into the Teuk Kreung and take a bite.

Photography by Nataly Lee.