Samlo kakor(សម្លកកូរ) or samlor kako is a Khmer stew with a variety of ingredients. The name samlo kakor means ‘stirring soup’ or ‘stirred soup’. It is a traditional Khmer dish and well-known throughout Cambodia. Hearty and nutritious, it is often served with rice as a single-dish meal.

A Khmer legend tells of a woman who suffered cruelty and abuse from her drunkard husband. One day, sick of being mistreated, she devised a plan to poison her husband. She gathered all sorts of roots, unripe fruit, and other ingredients from near their house and mixed them together in a stew, adding toasted rice powder to conceal the bitterness. She stirred the soup until the ingredients were unrecognizable. When her husband returned home drunk, he ate the soup and went to bed.

In the morning, the woman found her husband was not dead; instead he was in a good mood. He went to work and came home early, sober, asking his wife to make the soup again. Disbelieving, the woman made the soup again, and then again and again. Her husband became healthier and more pleasant every day, no longer cruel and abusive. The woman was surprised but delighted, and the couple lived happily ever after. This healing soup supposedly became today’s samlo kakor.

This legend also highlights the bounty of ingredients that can be found in the Khmer homeland, even growing just outside the house. Samlo kakor is traditionally made with a variety of wild plants that can vary widely. The khroeung(គ្រឿង) or paste for the base, toasted rice powder, and certain ingredients like eggplant and moringa loosely define the dish, but added vegetables and unripe fruits can vary quite a bit. Though not native to Cambodia, pumpkin and green papaya are quite common additions today.

The following recipe is a vegan adaptation of traditional samlo kakor, which normally might include fish, prahok(ប្រហុក), and/or other meat.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 clove garlic
• 2 tsp salt
• 4 shallot, sliced
• 4 stalk lemongrass, tough outer layers removed
• 1 tbsp galangal
• 2 tbsp turmeric
• 2 green thai banana, outer skin removed, shredded
• 1 cup green jackfruit, chopped (optional)
• 1 cup pumpkin, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 green papaya, peeled and shredded
• 12 long bean, chopped
• 2 thai eggplant, chopped
• 1/2 cup toasted rice powder
• 2 tbsp palm sugar [substitute brown sugar]
• 4 cup mushroom stalk or other stock or water
• 1 cup oyster mushroom or other mushroom
• 1/2 cup pea eggplant
• 2 cup ivy gourd leaf(ស្លឹកបាស sloekbeas) or bitter melon leaf or amaranth leaf or other greens
• 1 cup moringa leaf

Directions

• pound garlic, salt, shallot, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric into paste
• saute paste, banana, jackfruit, pumpkin, papaya
• add long bean, eggplant, mushroom
• add stock, toasted rice powder, sugar
• bring to a boil
• simmer, stirring continually, until cooked through
• add pea eggplant, ivy gourd leaf, moringa leaf
• simmer a few more minutes
• serve