The head is considered the most delicious part of the fish in Cambodia. It is usually sold in markets along with innards like the stomach and liver. These parts of the fish, along with the brain, are also used in this salad.
- Boil fish head for about 20 minutes and when cool remove the flesh and innards from the bones and break into small pieces. Blanch bean sprouts for 1 minutes, then set aside.
- Remove chi leaves from the stems, then julienne cucumber.
- Wrap the prahok in a banana leaf (or foil) and grill. Then dissolve the prahok in 1tbsp hot water and strain. Use the prahok stock as the dressing base and discard the rest.
- In a clay mortar coarsely pound the garlic, shallots, zest of lime and chili. Then add the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar.
- When all the ingredients are well mixed add to the prahok stock and stir.
- In a large salad bowl toss the fish, cucumber, bean sprouts and herbs and add the dressing.
- This nhoam can be eaten alone as a salad or served with steamed rice with bird chillies on the side.
Ingredients:
- 300 g head of sanday fish
- ½ cup chi
- ½ cup cucumber, julienned
- 1 cup bean sprouts
Dressing:
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 shallots
- 1 tbsp prahok (optional)
- zest of ¼ kaffir lime
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- bird chilies
