Fresh Veggie Strips with Khmer Dipping Sauces-Ginger Fish Sauce & Tamarind Sauce

Here are some pics of veggies that I prepared for the party to go with the dipping sauces. You can use almost any veggie that can be cut into pieces (radish, carrots courgettes etc.etc.) or leaves (like salad, mustard or cabbage even). They use all sorts here to go with many, many dishes.  It’s a good way to eat those greens. I love green. It should definitely be added onto the nutrition list of what our body needs. Somehow the chlorophyl in green veggies and leaves is a must for my body! After a year of studying herbal medicine at the Samuel Hahnemann Schule in Berlin (amongst many other subjects-but I didn’t finish the course because I did a runner to Asia;-)) I realized why. It’s the blood of plants and somehow we need it in our bodies _ can’t really explain but I just know my body craves it.

The sauces I made here for the first time and they weren’t perfect. Since then I’ve made them again and then had the same thing made by my girlfriend. Her’s tasted far, far better. I will get her recipe and post it. She said the sauces have as much variety in them as one wishes. I made the sauces below from my favourite Khmer food website-Khmerkorm,  on the net. See bottom of page for links.  At the time of this party 2-3 months back we were not together so I couldn’t ask her.

How even the common old cucumber can look so scrumptious!! Even the dark green one-I thought it’s a courgette when I bought it-but no, it’s a cucumber too!! 🙂

When is a BLT a BMT??……..(And my first horrid kitchen job)

A BLT is a classic American burger consisting of Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato, hence the name BLT! I replaced the Lettuce with Mustard Greens hence it’s become a BMT!! Actually I made a lot of changes. And the result wasn’t exactly perfect but delicious none the less!! To one of the changes there’s a story to go with it. Out with the mayonnaise and in with home made sweet chilli sauce (I bought it in the market actually but it was made in some Khmer persons kitchen). You can buy it in bottles in every Asian food store in Europe and America. But the home made stuff is worlds away from that. At some point I’ll get the recipe and make it myself and of course add it to my blog (might be a year from now at my current rate of writing:-))!

Why I can’t stand mayonnaise……well my very first job in a kitchen in a shi*** little cafe in Berlin probably more than 10 years ago now I was the kitchen assistant. Meaning I had to do all the tonnes of chopping veggies and making basic (boring) stuff that the cook didn’t have time to obviously because he was too busy cooking. Amongst them was the  big plastic bucket of washed and dried salad leaves (that looked like a rubbish bin if you ask me). And worst of all was the 10 (or was it 20) litres of mayonnaise I made and stored in a plastic bucket (that looked also the same as the one all of the food waste went into).  I was absolutely shocked at the ingredients of mayonnaise. 98% vegetable oil, an egg or 4, vinegar…..and salt and sugar!! I mean basically it’s just pure fat. Looks horrible and tastes horrible!! (Apologies to all you mayonnaise lovers out there but having to make buckets of the stuff traumatized me for life I think:-))!

After I half chopped off two of my fingers in a rage chopping some veggies or other whilst thinking about how awful my ex was and hating her to the grave, I didn’t work in a kitchen again for almost 10 years. Anyway, another story probably not for this blog but my fingers were sewn back on and one works perfectly well but the little finger on my right hand I can only move half of. And no, I’m not left handed but I would swap hands at the huge amount of veggies I had to chop out of boredom and because my right hand ached after an hour!! (A gruesome start to a recipe-heheh!!)

Somethings gone strangely wrong with my picture sizes. I can’t seem to adjust the size as usual. And the horrendous amount of time it takes to upload them on my “just about not fly into a rage” working internet connection here, I won’t upload them again.