Rain, Guests, and Interviews

When it rains, every once in a while, it comes in under the roof with strong wind and seeps down the walls, pooling in the boy’s room.

Since he reads himself to sleep and then kicks books off his bed, this book got really soggy. I tried to help it dry in the toaster oven. Rainy season is supposed to be finished, but it still rains fairly regularly.

Some friends from New York came through and we made them Khmer curry.

The kids loved playing, reading books and then watching a video about the cargo ships prompted by the book.

The next morning we got them breakfast from our favorite (fresh) street vendor. I noticed they used a type of rocket stove to cook the rice and boil water for tea.

The kids (and I) were excited that our guests brought chocolate! Thanks!

In other news, we are interviewing for several places and some of the feeling of being in limbo may be lifted or prolonged depending on the results. Until then, we’ll appreciate the time we have in Cambodia.

Khmer Curry

There is an argument over who curry really belongs to, the English or the Indian, but today I'm going to show you a completely different version of curry; Khmer.

We started out chopping up lemon grass, turmeric, garlic, and some kind of fragrant leaf that I didn't know the name of, and the person teaching me only knew in Khmer. My friends told me it was Kaffir lime leaf.

 

We had some dried red peppers soaking while we did this. 

Next we blended up the lemon grass, turmeric, Kafir lime leaf, and garlic with..... roasted peanuts! Then, we blended up the red peppers. These two were kept in separate bowls.

 

Of course, anything Khmer style has all of the bones. They just chop it up, bone and all. We chose to do a chicken version.

 

One of the coconut vendors nearby had a machine to extract the juice and oil of  the coconut. We started by boiling a small bag of coconut oil/juice to evaporate the water and leave the coconut oil.

 

When it had evaporated, she added the blended up mixtures and some curry powder.

 

When the spices were cooked and fragrant, we added the chicken.

 

After the chicken was well on its way, we added a big bag of coconut milk, (being sure to discard the brown pulpy part in the bottom of the bag from the husk of the coconut) and let it boil a while.

 

Last, we added salt, a little teaspoon of sugar and vegetables. It is usually cooked with green beans, sweet potato or pumpkin, and onions. I made it with what we had, so regular potatoes, carrot, onion and green beans.

It is usually eaten over rice or with fresh baguettes from the local bakery. Everybody really liked it and asked if we can make it once a week!