Recipe
Nhoam Svay (recipe)
Green mango and cucumber tossed with pounded smoked fish, dried shrimp, herbs, peanuts and a fish sauce dressing.
This recipe for nhoam svay (ញាំស្វាយ), green mango salad with smoked fish, is Lara Dunston's, published by Grantourismo.[1] The salad brings together raw fruit and vegetables, crisp smoked fish, dried shrimp and peanuts in a dressing of fish sauce, lime juice, garlic, bird's eye chilies and palm sugar.[1][2]
The smoked fish is usually trey riel, small local freshwater fish such as baby carp. The fish are smoked in homemade wood-fire smokers in the floating villages around the Tonle Sap, a practice that has continued for well over a thousand years. The salad takes about 30 minutes and needs no cooking. The dressing goes on near the end so the salad does not turn soggy.[1]
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 dried smoked fish, about 6 cm (2.4 inches) long
- 3 tbsp fish sauce
- 4 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 to 3 bird's eye chilies, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp liquid palm sugar, or palm sugar dissolved in a little hot water
- 1 tbsp dried shrimps
- 1 large green mango, grated or julienned
- 1 medium cucumber, grated or julienned
- 1 small carrot, grated or julienned, optional
- 3 small purple shallots, finely sliced
- 1 cup mixed fresh herbs such as basil, mint and coriander
- 3 tbsp roasted peanuts, chopped and crushed
Method
- Stir the fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar, garlic and chilies together, then taste, adjust and set aside.
- Soak the dried shrimps in drinking water.
- Strip the heads, tails, fins and spines from the smoked fish, pound the flesh and pick out any bones.
- Grate or julienne the mango, cucumber, shallots and optional carrot into a bowl; julienning gives a crunchier salad.
- Wash, dry and pluck the herb leaves.
- Drain the shrimps and toss half of them with the vegetables, dressing, fish and half the herbs and peanuts.
- Plate the salad, garnish with the remaining herbs, shrimps and peanuts, and serve immediately.