Forgotten Foods: Kokor (Cambodia)

Kokor
Prepared by Mey Theing
Thlok Vien Mean Cheay Agricultural Cooperative
Cambodia

Kokor is an ancient Cambodian recipe primarily composed of locally sourced vegetables and meat. This dish has lost its popularity in recent times, especially in urban areas where a wide array of foreign cuisines is easily accessible.

Local woman Mey Theing maintains that consuming traditional dishes like Kokor is a wiser choice, as it allows you to trace the origins of the ingredients, unlike certain foreign dishes that might potentially present health hazards.

Ingredients:

• Oil
• Salt
• Roasted rice
• Fermented fish, locally called “prohok”
• Palm sugar
• Blended paste of garlic, galangal root, and lemongrass
• Young banana, chopped
• Young papaya, sliced
• Young jackfruit, chopped
• Ripe pumpkin, chopped
• Amaranth
• Young moringa
• Ball eggplant, chopped into 2 or 4 parts
• Pork ribs, chopped

Instructions:

1. Pour 3 spoons of oil into a pot.
2. When the oil turns hot,  put the crushed ingredients (garlic, lemongrass, and galangal root).
3. Add the prohok (fermented fish) next and stir the ingredients in the pan.
4. Put the palm sugar and mix it well with the ingredients.
5. Put the chopped meat. Stir and wait for it to tenderize.
6. Add the chopped banana, ball eggplant, and jackfruit and stir them together with the other ingredients.
7. Put the pumpkin and wait for it to tenderize.
8. Put 1/3 spoonful of salt. Stir.
9. Add the papaya.
10. Add water to the pan.
11. Put roasted rice and leave it to cook for around 10 minutes until the dish comes to a boil.
12. Put the amaranth and moringa leaves. Once these ingredients are cooked, the dish is ready. Prepare while hot.

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The “Women Ensuring Food Security and Nutrition: Forgotten Foods Cooking Contest” is organized by the consortium Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA) and La Via Campesina (LVC) through the Asia-Pacific Farmers’ Program (APFP) – Farmers’ Organizations for Asia (FO4A) and Assuring Resiliency of Family Farmers (ARISE). APFP-FO4A is supported by the European Union (EU) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). ARISE is supported by IFAD.

More info at https://asianfarmers.org/women-ensuring-food-security-and-nutrition-forgotten-foods-cooking-contest/