Samlor Khtis – Khmer Fish Soup with Coconut Milk and Pineapple

Most of favorite Khmer foods are associated with the Kreung (a mixture of Khmer herbs), Prohok (fish pasted), Kapik (fermented shrimp) and also coconut milk. My last post was about Pineapple in Cambodia, in which pineapple is among popular vegetables of Khmer dishes. So today I would like to present a favorite Khmer foods related to pineapple called Samlor Khtis (សម្លខ្ទិះ), Fish Soup with Coconut Milk and Pineapple. It need more times to prepare, yet it’s easy to cook. It’s a typical delicious Khmer dish for lunch.

Ingredients

- The Kreung: thinly sliced lemon grass (ស្លឹកគ្រៃ), kaffir lime leaves or skin(ស្លឹកក្រូចសើច), rumdeng (រំដេង), turmeric (រមៀត). The Kreung set is prepared for sell in the market. Pound the Kreung together in a mortar (the pounded Kreung also on sell).

- 1 table spoon of Kapik (fermented shrimp), when the Kreung is almost finely pounded, add Kapik into the mortar and pound together with the Kreung to make a well mixing.

- 0,5 g of dried red chili for getting good color soup. finely chop.

- 500g of fish flesh, cut into 1.5cm round slices. (can also replace with fork and beef)

- 500g of eggplant, cut into round slices with 4cm length, then split the round slices into 6 pieces.

- 1 moderate peeled pineapple, quarter and remove the core, cut into 0,5cm slices.

- 250ml of coconut milk

- 3 tablespoons of fish sauce

- 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

- green leaves herb (ជីរនាងវង)

Main Ingredients for Samlor Khtis Fish Flesh

Start Cooking

Heat cooking oil in a pot with moderate heat, put the mixed Kreung and minced red chili in, then add fish flesh. Stir fry it till the fish is almost gets cooked, add pineapple and fish sauce. Then add eggplant. Next add 500ml of water, cook until it’s get boiled.

Till the eggplant is getting cooked, add the coconut milk and increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil instantly. Then start to adjust seasoning to your favorite.

The green leaves herb is top on the soup bow for additional smell and favor.The soup is very deciduous with the great taste of the coconut milk, the Kreung, and especially the sour of pineapple.

Samlor Khtis Sach Trei Mnors

Note: The vegetables for Samlor Khtis can be replaced by green bell pepper and green tomatoes. But with these kind of vegetables, we must add tamarind to create the sour taste of the soup. Because the pineapple is absent.