Cambodia Fish Noodle Soup (Nom Pajok)

Nom pajok is basically a fish soup simmered in rich tropical ingredients served with rice noodle.  This is one of Cambodia's national dish.  This is one of my all time favorite dish.  It is quite time consuming but well worth the effort.  I have been eating this all my life but never made it.  I only made this once and it turned out awesome.  I got the recipe from a Pina Huy.  Below please find the recipe:

Original Source:  Pina Huy

Ingredients:

• 1 Whole chicken
• 3-5 fillets of catfish
• 1 tbsp Pahok (fermented fish paste)
• ½ cup of fish sauce
• 1 packet of coconut cream powder (can use coconut milk)
• 1 cup of chopped lemon grass (can buy frozen if fresh is unavailable)
• 5-10 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp of pickled rhizome
• 5-10 kafir lime leaf
• 1 tbsp tumeric powder
• Salt – add as desired
• Sugar – add as desired
• Fresh chili pepper
• Vermicelli Noodles
• Vegetables (bean sprouts, green papaya, cucumber, long bean, banana blossom, cabbage and any kind you may like to add)

Soup Preparation:

1.  Bring a big stewing pot with 3 quarters full of water to boil then add the whole chicken and let cook.  Once chicken is fully cooked take it out of the water but DO NOT drain or dump the broth.  Let the chicken cool down.  Add the catfish fillets to the broth, let it cook then remove and place together with cooked chicken.  You can add the catfish initially with the chicken but it cooks a lot faster so I like adding it after the chicken is removed.  Once the meat cools to a temperature safe to handle shred them into pieces small enough for blender to grind.  Grind the shredded chicken and catfish together and set aside.

2.  Chop lemongrass, garlic and rhizome and grind in blender.  You may want to add a little cold water to the mixture to get the blender going.  Add tumeric powder after grinding to avoid staining your plastic appliances.

3.  Once all the blending is done bring broth already in pot to a boil and add both mixtures in.  Be sure to monitor the heat level at this point and stir occasionally to avoid settlement from occurring at bottom of pot.  This avoids burns and bitterness in your soup.
Add whole kafir lime leaves, pahok, fish sauce, salt, sugar and coconut cream powder.
*Tip* the kafir lime leaf is usually sliced and added to the lemongrass mixture to be blended but leaving them whole gives equivalent flavor and saves time.


Cooking the Noodles and Preparing the Vegetables:
1.  Bring water to a boil then add noodles.  Once the noodles are soft to taste drain and rinse with cold water.  To separate noodles into individual bunches soak in cold water while handling and place bunched noodles into a basket for proper drainage.  If the noodles are not properly drained it will be mushy and prevent flavors of the soup from absorbing in.

2.  Chop and shred vegetables as pictured or as desired
With a mortar and pestle grind some fresh chili peppers and salt (you can add a little sugar if you’d like) to top off the noodle soup.

Banana Bread wtih Walnuts & Cranberries

Banana Bread

One loaf of banana bread.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If you are using a dark pan, or a glass Pyrex type pan, reduce the temperature to 325 degrees. For any and all recipes, whenever you bake with these two types, you should always reduce the temperature by 25 degrees.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
2/3 cup White Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt

1 cup Mashed, Ripe Banana (2-3 medium size bananas, or 2 large)
1/3 cup Butter Flavored Shortening or Butter, softened
2 Tbsp Whole Milk, or Half & Half
2 Eggs, Room Temperature
1/4 cup Chopped Nuts, Raisins, or Chocolate Chips


Sift ALL dry ingredients together.

Add all ingredients but eggs & nuts, beat with an electric mixer on low until blended, then on highest speed for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, and beat gently until eggs are incorporated.

Pour the batter into a prepared bread pan. Sprinkle the nuts, raisins, chips, whatever you are adding on top of the batter, gently stir them into the batter with a spatula or fork. (This will keep the additions throughout the bread - if you mix them in before you pour the batter into the pan, the majority of the additions sink, and bake into the bottom.)

Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, on the center rack of the oven. Check the loaf at 55 minutes using a toothpick in the center.

When baking is complete, cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap, covered by aluminum foil.

A couple of tips: If you are baking the loaf with nuts, let the loaf rest for a day before eating it. This will give you the nut flavor without the acidity. For some reason, walnuts have a certain bite in banana bread that is obvious to the taste. Waiting eliminates that.

Your recipe called for butter for the pan. Whenever I bake, I use a non-stick baking spray called "Baker's Joy". It is like other non stick sprays, but contains flour and is specifically formulated for baking. Pam also makes a version of the bake spray, but it is harder to find.

If I have it on hand, I add about 1/3 cup of sour cream to the batter when adding wet ingredients (before the eggs). You can't taste it, but it adds a richer flavor and a more moist texture to the bread. I do the same when making cake from boxed mixes, or muffins. Anyway, this particular recipe is excellent with or without it.

Delicious Bake Vegetable

You can bake all sorts of vegetable with fresh herbs.  Parsnips, carrots, potatoes, bell peppers, butternut squashes, etc. by marinating it with olive oil, minced garlic, Italian parsley, cumin and sea salt.  Bake it at 400 degree for about an hour.  Stir it with at interval so the vegetable on the bottom get a chance to brown.  Be sure to bake with glass or ceramic pan.  Spread vegetable thinly on the container.

Mixed Herbs:

Olive oil

Minced Italian (flat leaves) Parsley

Minced Garlic

Sea Salt

Cumin

Vegetable:

Red Potatoes

Carrots

Parsnips

Bell Peppers

Zucchini

Bake at 400 degree.  Stir it after about 20 minutes because the top tend to brown first.

Chicken Kabobs

Banh Xeo (Tumeric Pancake)

Seafood Ceviche