Taking a cooking class in Cambodia - learning to cook Khmer food in Battambang
We feel the best way to get to know a country is through its food and there’s no better way of doing this than through a cooking class! Come with us as we spend the afternoon buying ingredients at a local fresh market and cooking up a Cambodian feast of fish amok, stir-fried beef and lemongrass and a Khmer chicken curry at the Smokin’ Pot Cooking School in Battambang!
The cuisine of Cambodia, Khmer food, doesn’t enjoy the same international fame as its Vietnamese and Thai neighbours, but anyone who has travelled through this fantastic country, knows that Khmer food is ridiculously good! One of our favourite ways to get into the culinary scene of a country is to take a cooking class. So in our first week in Cambodia, in the city of Battambang, that is exactly what we did!
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Cooking classes in Battambang
Up and down the streets of Battambang there are several different cooking schools and classes to choose from. Each class will offer a similar menu of Khmer favourites and will almost always, include a trip to a local market to buy ingredients as well as giving you the recipes at the end so you can cook the dishes at home.
A quick Google search will give you the names of Coconut Lyly, Nary’s Kitchen and the Smokin’ Pot.
We chose the Smokin’ Pot for an afternoon cooking class. The Smokin’ Pot has a restaurant in town and the reviews on Google looked great. We cannot tell you if this is “the best cooking class in Battambang” as we only took the one, but what we can say is that we had a fantastic time with them.
The Smokin’ Pot Cooking Class
We were picked up from our cheap and cheerful hostel, Lucky Hostel by Vannak in his remorque (think an old school carriage but pulled by a motorbike rather than a horse) and were whisked away out of Battambang town. This is where things got off the rails. The benefits of travelling in the rainy season are cheaper accommodation and less crowds. The disadvantages are well… it rains. Sometimes it rains a lot.
A little way outside of Battambang, we made an impromptu stop at a covered market to escape the deluge we had run into. Sheltering inside next to closed up fruit stalls we were quickly joined by soaked school children on their way back home and other locals escaping the rain. As quickly as it started, the rain moved on across the plains, a quick wipe down of the seats and we were back in the remorque and on our way again.
Our first official stop was to gather some ingredients at the Kwaeng Market (location). As soon as we stepped out the remorque we knew this wasn’t your usual tourist market but a truly local affair. Vannak was clearly a regular, joking and chatting with all the stall holders.
Our first stop was a coconut stall where we were shown how to strip a coconut into coconut shavings. These shavings were then squeezed into fresh, delicious coconut milk. We needed both the shavings and the milk for our cooking, so we grabbed a bag of each.
Next up was the vegetables. Spread out on the floor like a colourful patchwork quilt, were boxes, baskets and punnets of fruit and vegetables in every shape and colour imaginable. Vannak walked us through all the more exotic vegetables we might not get in the UK, explaining how they could be used in both cooking and medicine. We picked up some fresh bunches of morning glory, long strands of snake beans, a bouquet of herbs, fiery red chillies, twisted stumps of ginger, turmeric and galangal and a large bag of garlic.
Next we needed protein. Heading to the meat stall, the butcher presented us with all the different cuts of beef to choose from. Vannak clearly knew what he was looking for and after testing for tenderness, he sliced off a fresh chunk of juicy steak. Some chicken was also selected and added to the bag ready for curry-ing later!
The fish lady was nowhere to be found, her stall was there but her baskets were empty and she had wandered off to get some very fresh supplies. Whilst we waited for her return, Vannak took us over to a steaming pile of beef innards. It was time for a snack, Cambodian style! He explained to us that this dish was a special treat in Khmer cuisine, and often eaten at weddings and special occasions. Every part of the inside of the cow was stewed together in a large steaming silver bowl. Vanank sliced us off some choice cuts of heart, lung and stomach lining. Each piece had a unique texture and had been deeply flavoured from the broth it had been stewing in. It wasn’t unpleasant, but the textures were very different from the uniform beef we are used to. The stomach lining in particular was very odd, with one side of it being tender and melting and the other side requiring serious effort to get your teeth through. It's one of those dishes where if you grew up with it, we can imagine it being a tasty treat and a texture you could become addicted to.
During this meaty interlude our wayward fish seller returned. Inside her plastic bowls were live catfish, snakehead fish and even some eels. You couldn’t argue with the freshness, they were all there wriggling and writhing. Vannak picked out a fresh snakehead fish and the seller got to work. With a brutal efficiency and knife skills Gordon Ramsey would be proud of, the fish was dispatched, gutted, scaled and filleted in a matter of moments. Into a bag it went and back to the remorque we went.
A short drive from the market and we pulled into Vannak’s house. The kitchen for the cooking class stretched down one side of the house, with a lovely view out over his small farm and the rice paddy fields beyond. We washed our hands and were quickly set to work.
Over the next few hours we cooked up a Khmer storm.
First up we needed a curry paste base. In a stone pestle and mortar we smashed and pounded together turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaf and garlic. This would be the base for all three curries we were cooking that day.
Our first curry would be the fish amok. An iconic Khmer dish and one that Ellie is very fond of. We made delicate, traditional banana leaf baskets to steam the fish curry in. The fish was chopped and joined by the ruby red chillies, curry paste and freshly squeezed coconut milk and poured into our banana leaf bowls. This all went into a covered steamer, and was left to simmer away.
Who made the banana basket best? Ellie’s is on the left, John’s is on the right!
Next we sliced up thin slithers of beef along with smashed lemon grass, snake beans, morning glory and more chillies. This was the base for our quick beef and lemongrass stir fry.
Our final dish to prepare was a traditional Khmer chicken curry. Curry paste, fish sauce, sticky palm sugar, sliced onions, green beans, chicken and lime leaf all went into a bowl to be cooked together.
Our method of cooking was a traditional, Cambodian wood fire. A large stone / terracotta pot was filled with embers and branches of wood, and a pot or wok was placed on top of the flames to cook. The smell of burning wood and frying curry paste filled the air. Stood amongst rice paddies and farm fields with the smell of wood smoke and cooking in the air, it was perfect. A fantastic way to experience proper, traditional Cambodian cooking. As we stir fried our beef and cooked up the curry, all our meals came together. Served with mounds of steaming rice, we tucked into our home cooked feast.
The fish amok was incredible. Creamy and coconutty with firm chunks of fish and peppered with spicy red chilli it was a harmonious symphony of flavour and texture. The steaming had perfectly cooked the fish without turning it into mush, and the once liquid coconut milk had firmed up into a thicker, curry texture.
The citrus lemongrass beef was the perfect counterpoint to the creamy amok. Full of sharp, vibrant zingy flavours, it lightened our taste buds right back up!
The Khmer chicken curry was full of spices all held in a perfect balance. The chicken had leant its flavour to the curry paste, the paste leant its flavour to the vegetables and it all came together as a beautiful bowl of curry.
It was a delicious feast and tasted even better knowing we had bought all the ingredients and made it all ourselves!
How to book a cooking class in Battambang
To book a cooking class with the Smokin’ Pot, just head over to their website here.
Classes can take place either in the morning (9am to 12pm) or in the afternoon (3pm to 6pm, just pick your preferred time.
Cost of the cooking class
It costs $15 USD per person. This included pick up and drop off in Battambang as well as all the ingredients and food we ate.
Travelling in the low (wet) season meant that we got an especially good deal as we had our very own private class - we were the only ones cooking that day!
Final thoughts
There really is no better way than to get in amongst local culture than by its markets, produce and cooking. You can combine all of these together in a cooking class! We had gone into the cooking class fairly ignorant of Khmer cuisine and had come out with bundles of new found knowledge and a deeper appreciation for the food of Cambodia.
The man himself, Vannak!
Vannak had been amazing, giving clear instructions whilst being great fun and a real wealth of local knowledge. If you’re in Battambang, definitely take a class! We would highly recommend the Smokin’ Pot.
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
To read more about what there is to do in Battambang city, check out our travel guide below:
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Battambang is a ‘must visit’ on any Cambodia itinerary. With plenty of things to do including the ruins of the Banan and Ek Phnom temples, the famous ‘Bamboo Train’ and the cave bats of Phnom Sampov. The city is full of cute cafes, local markets, traditional Khmer restaurants and even a ‘Pub Street '. Read our complete travel guide for all you need to know about visiting this laid back, Cambodian city.