Khmer Chicken from Cambodia
Khmer Chicken with Bok Choi (serves 2, or 1 hungry man)
Chop these thinly and keep separately in piles:
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot (Onion if you can’t be bothered to buy shallots, but only a very small amount (1/5 th of an onion)
3 small lemon grass stalks but exclude the outer skin first – chop these as finely as you can!
2 pieces of fresh turmeric (hard to get it fresh in the UK?)
1 and a half kaffir lime leaves – roll them up first then chop thinly
Galangal 1 inch square, or ginger if no galangal
Mix and smash these in a pestle and mortar (or cheat with a blender)
But they must go into it in the following order..
lemon grass, kaffir, galangal/ginger : smash a LOT to a pulp
THEN the rest except shallots; smash smash smash, and the shallots must go in last, more smashing.
Now you're ready to spread this mixture onto the chicken - a large organic piece of deboned thigh preferably.
On to the chicken, which you have slathered in this yummy bright yellow spicy mixture, add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk, half a teaspoon of chicken stock. Here you are supposed to add 3 tablespoons of oyster sauce, but I say either add 1 only or none at all - I am suspicious that this is the Cambodians over-doing it a bit, making it far too salty.
Over this add a couple of tablespoons of crushed peanuts - you should seriously think about keeping a jar of these in your larder - crushed to the point where some are powdery and none are left whole. (beware of using salted, but roasted should be ok)
Now, heat some oil in a pan - by the way, the healthiest oil to cook with is coconut oil - if not, then olive oil, but you do not need any other oil in your kitchen - and make sure the pan has a lid or at least something you can improvise as a lid. When the oil's hot, fry the chicky with all of its yellow mixture but don't toss it around too much, you want it to go a bit crispy so leave it in place, turning it over once or twice. When it's gone much browner, possibly 10 minutes, it's ready!
You can serve with steamed rice and bok choi.
The bok choi can be literally steamed with a bit of water, lemon juice and oil in the bottom of a pan or wok. Remember the lid!! If you want to be more elaborate, you can toss over it a bit of crushed garlic, palm sugar, fish sauce, a ladle of vegetable stock and some black pepper. The Cambodians like to add cornflower mixed with water at this point too but I thing this makes it look gloopy, you want it fresh and green. Don't oversteam, you don't want it to lose colour.







