After been in Cambodia for a long time, Cambodian people’s culture and tradition are part of my daily life now. From the beginning of this journey, I was keenly interested to see and get known more about Cambodian / Khmer lifestyle from their eyes.
As a part of it, today I am going to write this blog on the topic Cambodian food ‘Beef Lok Lak’. What I ate again just yesterday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Cambodian food ‘Beef Lok Lak’. This food is exactly as it sounds. An almost sweet, marinated by palm sugar or molasses with sour sauce, this cube/square shaped well cooked stir fry beef will give your tongue a tingling feeling inside your mouth when you will get balck pepper flavour on it. It is served with sliced tomato on lettuce leaves with plain steamed rice, fried egg on top.
I know it sounds mouth watering so here is the Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe only for my Cambodia Food Blog readers I bypassed from the chef’s personal cookbook.
Cambodian Food Beef Lok Lak Recipe
I am going to split this Cambodian Beef Lok Lak recipe in four parts, serve for one person.
Beef Lok Lak ingredients
- 250g beef cut square/cube slice
- 50g of soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons of palm sugar/molasses or just regular sugar works fine
- 1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
- 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon of black ground pepper
- 1-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped (depend of your choice)
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Beef Lok Lak dipping sauce ingredients
- 5 tablespoons of lime juice
- 2 teaspoons of black pepper
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 tablespoon of water
Beef Lok Lak Ingredients for serving (depend of your choice)
- 1 fried egg
- 2 pieces ring shape sliced tomato
- 2 pieces round shape peeled and sliced cucumber
- 2 pieces round shape peeled and sliced onion
- 1-3 lettuce leaves
How to cook beef Lok Lak
Mix and marinate the beef with 50g of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of palm sugar/molasses/sugar, 1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon of fish sauce, 1 teaspoon of black ground pepper, 1-3 chopped garlic cloves and let it rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator.
Hit the cooker up maximum. Take a frying pan and put it on the cooker. Hit it then put the vegetable oil. After hitting the oil when little bubbles appear, put the marinated beef on it. Stir fry the beef until well cooked for 4-5 minutes.
Mix all ingredients for the dipping sauce.
Plate decoration for serving
Take a clean plate. If you imagine two equal parts of the plate, Put clean washed lettuce leaves at first in one part. Then put on it ring shaped cutting tomato pieces, then put round shape peeled and sliced cucumber on it. Now put the cooked beef on it and round shape peeled and sliced onion on the beef.
On the other part of this plate, take regular steamed cooked rice and put a fried egg on top.
That's it!
Your Cambodian Beef Lok Lak is ready to serve and eat.
Bon Apetteit!
Cambodian Food Beef Lok Lak mainly adopted from the Vietnamese Food ‘Bo Luc Lac’.
Bo means beef and Luc Lac means stir fried or shake.
So, Beef Lok Lak means ‘Stir Fried Beef’.
I did not find exactly from when Cambodian People started to cook and eat Beef Lok Lak. But it’s popularity explains everything about easy cooking method and good taste.
Also the Chinese and French colonized era in this Indo-China region for a long time has influenced Cambodian Food.
Beef Lok Lak is a very common dish in Cambodia. You can find it on almost all Cambodian restaurant’s menu. Even if not, you can tell them, they will cook for you.
It can taste a bit different depending on how many sources it cooked and served with.
Beef Lok Lak is part of the Cambodia Food Culture. You can eat Beef Lok Lak during your Cambodia Travel in any part of Cambodia. And you can also cook the Beef Lok Lak Recipe I wrote above.
