Amok with Shrimp

Ah, well, it has been a while... This traveling business takes up too much of my time somehow and I have to actually take some time "off" and sit down to type up some more recipes.

Thailand seems a long way away now and hence I decided to skip most of the recipes from there (the best ones will come later, promise) and catch up with a recipe from Cambodia. Undoubtedly the most famous dish from that country is Amok: a paste that can be used for different kinds of meat. Here, I post the version with shrimp, but you can substitute that with fish, tofu, beef or chicken

Ingredients (serves 4):

For the Amok paste:

4 lemongrass stems

4 fresh turmeric roots (you can substitute a root with 1 tbsp of turmeric powder)

2 finger roots (lesser ginger) - use ginger instead if you can't find finger roots, but reduce the amount as ginger is a lot stronger in  taste

2 small shallots

4 garlic cloves

4 Ngor or broccoli leaves

200g white mushrooms

1 onion

300g fresh shrimp

200ml coconut milk

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp chicken stock

Steamed rice

Preparation:

First, finely chop the ingredients for the Amok paste then pound them in a mortar until you obtain a smooth paste. Heat half of the coconut milk in a pan and add the amok paste, sugar, salt and fish sauce. Cook the sauce and add the shrimp, mushroom, onion and ngor leave. Add the rest of the coconut milk and season with chicken stock. Let the sauce thicken a bit and then place it, if available, in a banana leave and serve with steamed rice.