Tuk Trey

Cambodian fish-sauce dipping sauce pounded with garlic, chilli, sugar and lime, and the Khmer term for fish sauce itself.

Illustration inspired by a fish-sauce maker in Kampot.

Dish details
Khmer name	ទឹកត្រី
Other names	Teuk trey; Tœ̆k trei; Teuk Trey Koh Kong; Cambodian dipping sauce
Dish types	Condiment
Subjects	Food & Foodways; Migration & Diaspora
Related dishes	Sach Ko Ang; Bai Sach Chrouk; Kdam Chaa Mrech Kampot

Tuk trey (ទឹកត្រី, tuk trey) is the Khmer name for fish sauce and for the Cambodian dipping sauce made from it with garlic, chili, sugar and lime. The name means "fish water."

Cultural context

Fish sauce is an everyday seasoning in Khmer cooking. It salts soups and noodle dishes, marinates meat and serves as a dip for fish. Mixed with garlic, ginger and lime juice, it becomes a sauce for spring rolls, salads and noodles. Kampot is known for its own fish sauce, made from local anchovies. Cambodians also add it to stir-fries.

As a table sauce, tuk trey is spicy, sweet, sour and salty. It goes with Cambodian food in general and with fried and barbecued meats above all. Around midday in Cambodia, as workers head home for the long lunch break, the sound of a pestle striking a mortar marks the hour, and the sauce is on the table whatever the meal. At the Crab Market in Kep, most restaurants and stalls serve it with steamed blue crab. After coming to Canada, Thida introduced the sauce to friends and sent batches across the country to friends in Toronto.

The Cambodian table sauce is related to Vietnamese nuoc mam but differs from it a great deal. It is thicker, built on hot peppers, garlic and toasted peanuts. Brooklyn-based Cambodian cook Chinchakriya Un, founder of the pop-up restaurant Kreung Cambodia, makes tuk trey from pounded aromatics, fish sauce, palm sugar, lime and herbs. It may be served over meat and other proteins, or used as a dip for salad rolls, spring rolls and fresh vegetables.

Ingredients and preparation

In one Cambodian recipe, garlic and chilies are crushed in a small mortar for two to three minutes into a paste. Sugar and MSG are crushed in, and then the lime juice and fish sauce are mixed through with a spoon or fork. Another pounds garlic, red peppers, lime juice, sugar and water into a paste, then stirs in fish sauce and finally coarsely chopped roasted peanuts, which thicken the sauce. More fish sauce makes it saltier and more water makes it milder. More sugar makes it sweeter, more peppers make it hotter and more lime makes it more sour.

A household method from a Cambodian diaspora cook first caramelizes the sugar, then boils it with water and fish sauce. Minced garlic, chilies and lime juice are added once the sauce has cooled. This sauce keeps for three to four weeks in the refrigerator, and a base of fish sauce and sugar without the fresh garlic, chilies and lime keeps longer. Prepared tuk trey sauces keep for up to a month in the refrigerator, while plain fish sauce needs no refrigeration.

History and origins

Fish sauce is made from fermented fish and salt. In Cambodia it is the liquid poured off fermenting prahok through a series of pressings, and the first pressing is regarded as the best. It is used across Southeast Asia, where it is called nuoc mam in Vietnam and nam pla in Thailand. Fish sauce belongs to a long history of fermented fish condiments. It has been made in China for more than 2,000 years, and Roman garum is counted as an earlier relative. Cambodian cooking as a whole has taken in Indian, Chinese, French and Portuguese influences over several centuries.

In earlier times, many Cambodian cooks boiled their own fish sauce so they could set its flavor to their taste. Traditional fish sauce was made with palm sugar, which gave it a red color. As of 2018, most fish sauce, whether from neighboring countries or from some Cambodian workshops, was not red, because white sugar had replaced palm sugar, and it tasted different.

As of 2018, three households in Poeu Krom village (ភូមិពោធិ៍ក្រោម), Chong Kneas commune, in Siem Reap still made fish sauce the traditional way and sold it in several markets. One producer, Sitha, had kept up the trade for more than 30 years, since her mother's youth. She boiled three large pans a day, each holding about 100 liters (26 US gallons), and each pan cooked for about four hours. Her fish sauce went to market vendors and to households, bottled in reused drinking-water bottles with no brand name. She regards trey kamp liev (ត្រីកំផ្លៀវ) as the best fish for flavorful fish sauce.

Regional and household variations

Household recipes are not standardized, and cooks get different results by changing proportions and methods. In Thida's recipe, more chili raises the heat, less sugar brings out savory and tangy notes, and more garlic makes a thicker sauce, close to a relish. For spring rolls the fish sauce is cut back and the sugar raised. A simpler sauce for steak uses lime juice, salt and black pepper. The proportions in that recipe are close to the dipping sauces found across southern Cambodia. Chinchakriya Un's version pounds in lemongrass and the white stems of green garlic, then finishes the sauce with chopped herbs and toasted rice powder.

Tuk trey ping poh is a tomato version; ping poh means tomato. Tomatoes are roasted with shallots, garlic and green Thai chilies, ground to a coarse paste, and finished with lime juice, sugar, fish sauce and cilantro. It serves as a marinade for grilled fish, a seasoning for beans, a dip for raw vegetables or a sauce for meat. "It's like our marinara or our salsa," Un says. When tomatoes are watery or out of season, shrimp paste can replace the fish sauce.

Preparations and recipes

• Thida's Kitchen

  Pounded garlic and chilli dipping sauce balanced with sugar, lime juice and fish sauce.

References