Laap Khmer from Cambodia

During our visit to Siem Reap in the spring of 2024, we had an exciting but also quite packed and exhausting cultural program. I took a day off from it to attend my cooking class at the Country Side Cooking Class. Since the class didn’t start until the afternoon, I had some time in the morning to explore the old French quarter of Siem Reap around the market.

Around midday I got hungry, but didn’t want to eat too much, since at a cooking class whatever you cook is usually eaten afterwards, and three dishes were on the menu. There are a number of restaurants around the market, so I set off looking for a light lunch.

It didn’t take long to find something: one of the restaurants was serving a “Laap Khmer”. I’m a big fan of laap dishes from Thailand and Laos, so I was curious what the Khmer version of this minced meat salad had to offer. After a short wait, accompanied by the obligatory chopping sounds from the kitchen, the salad was in front of me.

What struck me first about this Laap Khmer were the mung bean sprouts mixed in and the finely cut snake beans. Flavour-wise it was noticeably milder than the Thai or Isaan versions, but it had a pronounced umami note from the Prahok used. Above all, though, it tasted fresh and light, exactly what I was after.

Long after our trip I kept thinking back to this salad from the Khmer kitchen. Not long ago I decided to recreate it, replacing Prahok with Thai Plaa Ra, which is an acceptable and, more importantly, accessible alternative to the Cambodian fermented fish.

If you don’t have Plaa Ra, you can also use Thai shrimp paste, or in the simplest case just a little more fish sauce. Whatever your umami source, here is my recipe.

Preparation

We start with the dressing. Peel the garlic and chop it finely. Then squeeze the lime and stir the juice together with the fish sauce and palm sugar until the sugar has fully dissolved. Add the Prahok or Plaa Ra and the garlic, mix everything together once more, and set the dressing aside.

While the dressing is resting, heat the vegetable oil in a pan and fry the minced meat over high heat. Break it up with a spatula as it cooks so that no large clumps remain. Transfer the cooked meat to a large bowl and let it cool briefly.

While the meat is cooling, prepare the rest of the salad. Peel the shallot and slice it into thin rings. Slice the snake bean and the spring onion into thin rings as well. Remove the stems from the Thai chilis and slice them into thin rings too.

Rinse the mung bean sprouts briefly under lukewarm water and drain them thoroughly. Finally, pick the mint and cilantro leaves from their stems and chop them finely.

To finish, add the shallot, snake bean, spring onion, chilis, and mung bean sprouts to the minced meat. Pour the dressing over everything and mix well. As a last step, scatter the chopped herbs on top and serve the Laap Khmer on a large plate.