Cambodian Lemongrass Stir-Fry

 

I recommend going heavy on the peanuts

I recently finally branched out and tried something new at Angkor Cambodian Restaurant, and now I'll never branch out ever again because my new favorite dish is too good. They call it Cha Krung, though I've seen a lot of other spellings in my attempt to find recipes. It's a lemongrass stir-fry and they do it with green beans, carrot, onion, and jalapeno, with peanuts on top. The peanuts are amazing in this, but I also really love the way they stir-fry the jalapeno as a vegetable, by removing the seeds and veins and slicing it thin. In my version above I used what I had, which was broccoli, eggplant from the garden, thai chilies instead of the jalapeno (but I'm going to grow jalapenos next year for this purpose), and fresh basil since I found a lot of recipes calling for it. And tofu, though it sounds like chicken is most traditional.

I was a bit discouraged when researching recipes because I would need to acquire fresh lemongrass, galangal, and kaffir lime, and I wasn't sure it was worth the effort when the restaurant is a mile away. But then I saw a couple that called for pre-made cambodian lemongrass paste, and thanks to the magic of Amazon (after striking out at the local asian market), I was soon in possession of this overpriced jar of lemongrass paste. From there, I decided to use this recipe from Grantourismotravels, and I was on my way.

I modified the technique of the recipe a bit since it assumes I'll be marinating chicken in the paste, but the flavors are the same - mainly the purchased lemongrass paste, fish sauce, and sugar (way more sugar than I expected in order to get it to taste right!).

I may try looking for the ingredients to make the paste so I can do some further experimentation. The main thing that I wasn't able to capture versus the restaurant version is that the restaurant one has a good amount of this thick brown sauce, almost like Japanese curry. My version is delicious already, but the sauce is more thin. It makes me wonder whether the restaurant has a roux sort of situation to thicken the sauce into a gravy-like consistency.

The Recipe:

2 tsp avocado oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 white onion, sliced

protein and chopped veggies (I like tofu, eggplant, fresh jalapenos, and whatever else is fresh)

4 tb Angkor lemongrass paste

4 tsp fish sauce

sugar, to taste

fresh basil and chopped peanuts, for garnish

jasmine rice, for serving

• If using tofu, cube and bake it at 400 until browned. I tossed it with soy sauce and sesame oil before baking.
• Over medium-high heat in a wok, heat oil and then saute the vegetables, garlic, and onion according to the cooking times of your preferred vegetables.
• Stir in lemongrass paste, fish sauce, and sugar to taste (I added at least a couple of tablespoons before it tasted right, to balance the fish sauce).
• Serve over rice with basil and peanuts on top.

The Verdict:

Overall grade: A-

Overall reason: I want to be able to make the paste from scratch, and get it to be more gravy-like, but it's absolutely delicious.

Time to prepare: 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes to bake the tofu

Husband quote: I don't remember him doing much talking as he was scarfing it down, He liked it.