Kroeung

The spice paste at the base of the Khmer kitchen, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, and kaffir lime pounded to a fragrant yellow paste that starts almost every Cambodian dish

Origin: Angkor and the Tonlé Sap, Cambodia

From the journey of Turmeric.

Kroeung is to Cambodian cooking what a sofrito is to the Caribbean or a rempah to the Malay kitchen: the aromatic base pounded before anything else happens. Lemongrass, galangal, fresh turmeric, kaffir lime zest and leaf, garlic, and shallot go into a stone mortar in a fixed order and are worked until the fibres disappear and the paste is smooth, bright, and intensely fragrant. Almost every Khmer dish of consequence begins here. It comes in three colours and the distinction matters. Yellow kroeung, the everyday one and the version below, takes its colour from fresh turmeric and goes into amok, into fish soups, and into grilled marinades. Red kroeung adds dried red chilli and is used for richer meat dishes and for samlor curries. Green kroeung takes fresh green chilli and a great deal of herb and is what dresses the fish gravy of num banh chok. What distinguishes it from a Thai curry paste, which it superficially resembles, is restraint with chilli and insistence on lemongrass. Khmer food is aromatic rather than hot; the heat, when it is wanted, arrives separately at the table. Cambodians will tell you, correctly, that the two cuisines are not the same thing and that the resemblance runs the other way round from the one most visitors assume. The mortar is not nostalgia. Lemongrass and galangal are woody, and pounding ruptures the cells and releases oils in a way that a blade does not; a blitzed kroeung is wetter, paler, and noticeably less fragrant. Cambodian cooks who own food processors still reach for the tbal.

Ingredients

Aromatics

  • 6 stalks lemongrass, tough outer layers removed, tender core only
  • 40 g fresh turmeric, peeled
  • 40 g galangal, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 20 g fingerroot (krachai), peeled, optional
  • 6 kaffir lime leaves, central rib removed, shredded
  • 1 tsp kaffir lime zest, finely grated
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 6 shallots, peeled

Seasoning

  • 1 tsp fine salt

Optional

  • 2 dried red chillies, soaked, for red kroeung only

Method

  1. Slice the lemongrass cores as thinly as you possibly can, across the grain. This is the single most important knife work in the recipe.
  2. Put the lemongrass in a large stone mortar with the salt and pound steadily for four or five minutes until it collapses into a coarse damp fibre.
  3. Add the galangal and fingerroot and pound for another three minutes until incorporated.
  4. Add the turmeric and pound until the paste turns an even deep yellow.
  5. Add the kaffir lime leaves and zest and work them in, then the garlic and shallots last, pounding until the whole thing is a smooth, wet, uniform paste.
  6. For red kroeung, work in the soaked and drained dried chillies at the end. For green, use fresh green chilli and a handful of holy basil or sawtooth coriander.
  7. Use immediately, or press into a jar under a film of oil and refrigerate for up to a week. It freezes well in tablespoon portions.

Notes

A stone mortar gives a noticeably better paste than a processor. If you must use a machine, add a splash of water, work in short bursts, and expect a paler result. Galangal is not ginger and there is no useful substitute; it is sold fresh and frozen by Southeast Asian grocers and the frozen is perfectly good. Fingerroot, krachai, is optional and characteristic. It is common in the fish dishes and absent from many meat ones. The paste is the base for amok trey, for samlor soups, and for grilled fish and chicken marinades; it is almost never eaten on its own.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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