Want to try cooking Cambodian cuisine but unsure where to start? Try these two recipes!
Both are relatively simple and quick. Plus, pork ribs and pickles are familiar to most American palates, so the only real difference is the addition of Khmer flavors: oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and lots of garlic and chili.
As added bonus, these recipes aren't in the book! They appeared in earlier drafts but didn't make the final cut — not because they aren't delicious, but because something else was a better fit for the story. (We swapped these out for the Irresistible Fried Fish with Green Mango Salad recipe in chapter 1.)
We've cooked these ribs many times for guests in Cambodia and in the US, and Kim's husband Hal grilled about 300 of them at our hugely popular Cambodian pop-up dinner at Bastion in Nashville during book launch week in 2024.
If you like grilling, you can't miss with this recipe, and these easy, 3-hour pickles are the perfect accompaniment. Serve with jasmine rice, garnish with cilantro and lime wedges, and you're good to go. This is a great meal for any season.
EXCERPT
"For my mother, the extra trouble of cooking on a real fire was worth the reward. To her, food cooked on an electric burner tasted like nothing. She loved the richer flavors that wood and charcoal imparted to the dishes she prepared. I feel the same way. But my kitchen is not open to the sky like hers was, so I cook on a gas burner inside the house. And when I have time, I build a charcoal fire on a small clay-pot barbecue and squat over it in my little courtyard, boiling bones for soup stock or grilling bamboo-beef skewers or a whole fish. I can even bake bread and pastries with it.
"Even rice simmered over a charcoal fire tastes better than rice from a rice cooker. For me, the smell of a charcoal fire is the smell of home and family. My favorite kitchen memories are steeped in that aroma.
"You can begin creating your own charcoal-infusedhistory with this recipe for pork ribs—a tangy barbecue, Cambodian-style." —Chantha Nguon, adapted from "Slow Noodles"
Recipe: Khmer-Style Pork Ribs
Serves 4.
Ingredients:
1 big slab pork ribs (Get baby-back if you can.)
1 bunch green onions
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
salt and black pepper to taste
Pound the green onions and garlic together and mix with the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar,
pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Marinate the ribs in the mixture for at least an hour, or in the refrigerator overnight.
If the ribs are chilled, bring them to room temperature as you heat the charcoal grill. Grill the ribs over a low fire until browned and crispy, around 10-12 minutes a side. (If you have a smoker, you can smoke ribs for 3 hours, then finish on the grill.)
Garnish with cilantro leaves and lime wedges. Serve with rice and pickled vegetables
(below).
Recipe: Fast Pickles
Ingredients:
1 cucumber, cut into 2-inch pieces and thinly sliced lengthwise
1 carrot, cut into 2-inch pieces and thinly sliced lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Thai chili, diced very fine
1/2 teaspoon crushed and minced ginger
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar (white sugar is fine)
pinch of salt
Toss carrot and cucumber with a pinch of salt and let sit for 10 minutes. Stir in vinegar,
sugar, garlic, ginger, and chili and leave at room temperature for 1 hour, then
refrigerate for 2 hours more before serving.
Chantha grilling ribs on a Khmer grill on her rooftop terrace