Khmer Herb Linguine


The Recipe

Serves: 2-3 People
Preparation: 12 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

“As well as for medicinal purposes, Khmer herbs are also used for beauty and culinary applications.”

 

Khmer herbs are one of the unique building blocks of Cambodian cuisine. The country’s rich biodiversity is where around 3000 vascular plant species grow and just over a third of this number are medicinal plants used to treat a variety of illnesses. Traditional medicine practitioners in Cambodia are known as Kru Khmer, who prescribe a variety of herbs and tonics to patients, from a combine lineage of Ayurveda, Theravada Buddhism, and traditional Chinese Medicine. As well as for medicinal purposes, Khmer herbs are also used for beauty and culinary applications.

Herbs such as neem, noni leaves, and holy basil are quite bitter when eaten raw, yet once cooked, take on a different flavour profile, making them an extremely important element in the country’s cuisine. Amok Trei (Fish Amok) is a perfect example of this with the inclusion of noni leaves, creating a unique texture and flavour to one of Cambodia’s most recognised dishes.

When cooking with Khmer herbs, those with a more intense and bitter profile are best chopped or sliced finely before being incorporated into a dish, the others are fine to be blended – I did a lot of tasting to decipher which to blend or slice making this pesto. I just had to add Cambodian cashews (salty skins and all) into this dish, because I am addicted to them!

It’s a simple recipe, allowing the herbs to shine and cling nicely to strands of flat linguine. Some of the herbs listed below may not be available to you but don’t worry, you can simply take a chance and explore the herbs that are, and experiment to make your own unique blend - think coriander and pumpkin seeds, sage and oregano with sunflower seeds, whatever you fancy. I would love to know the results so let me know!!

If you would like to read on, here’s a wonderful study on the medicinal herbs in Cambodia, as well as the culinary herbs.

 

THE INGREDIENTS

300g linguine, spaghetti etc
1 tbsp sea salt

 KHMER HERB PASTE
80g mixed Khmer herbs.
(sawtooth coriander, rice paddy herb, holy basil, shining bush plant/peperomia pellucida, neem) *
50g cashews
150g olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 x lime juice
30g parmesan cheese
½ tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper

Sliced red chillies and herbs.

*when using bitter herbs, make sure you include no more than 20% into the paste otherwise it will be extremely bitter… and no one wants that.

THE METHOD

  1. Taste your herbs, and slice the more bitter tasting ones, set them aside

  2. For the more neutral herbs, place into a food processor or blender

  3. Add in nuts, garlic, oil, cheese, lime, salt and pepper.

  4. Blend these dry ingredients first until they are fine, then slowly add in the oil in stages, taking into account the consistency of the paste. Feel free to add more or less oil, it’s entirely up to you, just make sure it is the right consistency to coat the pasta.

  5. Mix the sliced herbs into the paste and set aside.

  6. Meanwhile bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil and add salt

  7. Cook pasta according to instructions

  8. Mix through the paste and plate

  9. Garnish with sliced red chillies and herbs