Cambodia & Recipe : Banana Blossom Salad with Pork Belly and Freshwater Shrimp

The banana flower, or more precisely the banana inflorescence (ត្រយូងចេក [trâ-yông chék]), is widely used in tropical Asia as a vegetable. Its taste vaguely evokes the flavor of banana. It is especially appreciated for its crunchy texture. In Cambodia, it is mainly consumed in soup or salad.

Recipe

We provide here the recipe for an extremely popular dish, found on the menu of many Khmer restaurants: banana blossom salad (ញាំត្រយូងចេក [nhoam trâ-yông chék]).

This salad comes in many variations. In this recipe, the proteins used are pork belly and small freshwater shrimp.

Banana Blossom

Ingredients:

• 1 banana blossom

• 100 g pork belly (សាច់បីជាន់ [sach bei choan])

• 100 g small freshwater shrimp (កំពឹស [kâmpeuh])

• Various aromatic herbs (stinking celery, basil, etc.)

• 1/2 bowl peanuts

• For the sauce:2~3 tbsp nuoc mam2 shallots2 garlic cloves1 tsp granulated sugar1 tsp salt1~2 limes

Preparation:

• Cook the pork belly. Once the pork is cooked, reserve the cooking broth.

• Blanch the shrimp. Reserve.

• Remove the outer "leaves" of the banana blossom (too tough) and discard them. Cut the blossom in half lengthwise, remove the flowers located between the leaves and discard them.

• Cut the leaves crosswise into fine shreds. Reserve.Rinse and chop the aromatic herbs.Prepare the sauce: chop the garlic, slice the shallots, squeeze the limes; in a bowl, pour 3 to 4 tablespoons of the pork cooking broth, add the other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

• Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.Dehead the shrimp.

• Slice the pork into thin strips.

• In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the banana blossom, pork belly, shrimp, and peanuts.Pour the sauce over everything.

• Mix well, let marinate 3 to 4 minutes. Serve.

Banana Blossom Salad with Pork Belly and Small Freshwater Shrimp

Tips:

Cut banana blossom tends to oxidize (and thus blacken quickly). To prevent oxidation, prepare a large bowl of cold water, squeeze a lime into it, and plunge the banana blossom into the water as soon as it is cut. Simply drain well before preparing the dish.It is possible to add grated carrot to this salad.

This dish is sometimes seasoned with a prahok sauce: prahok is first diluted in water, and the other ingredients are those of the sauce used in this recipe.To give more "kick" to the sauce, it is also possible to add chopped chili.

Instead of pork, you can also use beef or chicken.It is unnecessary to shell the small shrimp: the shell offers practically no resistance to the teeth. In some recipes, the shrimp are not even deheaded.

Text and photographs by Pascal Médeville