Dish
Beef Lok Lak
Cubed beef seared with garlic and savoury sauces, served over lettuce and tomato with a Kampot pepper and lime dip.
Beef lok lak (ឡុកឡាក់, lok lak) is seared cubed beef served over lettuce and tomato with a dipping sauce of Kampot pepper and lime.[1] It is widely regarded as one of Cambodia's national dishes.[2][3]
Cultural context
In Cambodia the dish is often finished with a sunny-side-up egg and eaten with steamed rice. Chef Nak counts it among the country's classic French-influenced dishes.[1] In one Cambodian telling, the egg on top stands for sunlight.[3] The dipping sauce depends on Kampot pepper, grown in Cambodia's Kampot region.[4]
Ingredients and preparation
Cooks often marinate the beef first. One Cambodian recipe seasons it with oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, Chinese cooking wine, palm sugar and sea salt, with tenderloin cut into pieces about 2 to 3 centimeters (1 inch) wide.[1] The beef goes into a very hot pan with chopped garlic and oil, and the marinade is added as it cooks.[1]
Another method sears the beef in batches, then cooks it with onion and a separate sauce of oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar once the meat has begun to char. That recipe tenderizes the beef with cornstarch and baking soda along with soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, pepper and garlic.[4]
The plate is laid first with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot and onion, and the hot beef is placed on top.[3] For the dip, dry-roasted Kampot peppercorns are ground with salt and lime juice, which strengthens the pepper's aroma.[1]
History and origins
The origins of lok lak are debated. One account holds that lok lak came from Vietnam, where a near-identical dish is called bo luc lac, or shaking beef.[3][2] The Cambodian chefs and histories gathered by Grantourismo Travels offer other paths: through Vietnamese workers employed by French colonial officials, with the Vietnamese presence after the 1978 invasion, or during Vietnam's rule over parts of Cambodia in the nineteenth century.[2] The same writers link it to Cambodian-Chinese cooking, since Chinese black-pepper beef shares many of its ingredients and methods, and they point to older records of stir-frying in Cambodian cooking and of pepper growing in the region.[2] Some writers treat lok lak as a Cambodian dish that carries Vietnamese, Chinese and French threads.[2]
Thomas Tan, who runs a Cambodian restaurant in London, holds that true lok lak is good steak fried in butter, a habit he traces to the French colonial period.[5] He sees the cheap cuts cooked in oyster sauce on Cambodian restaurant menus as a result of Chinese influence.[5]
Regional and household variations
Household recipes vary widely. Some cooks use small cubes and others thin slices, and they adjust the seasoning to match.[6] Some Cambodian cooks add green peppercorns to the stir-fry instead of relying only on ground pepper in the marinade or dip.[6] Onion and shallot may be served raw with the salad, or the shallot may be fried with the garlic before the beef goes in.[6] Fries are another common side, and they sometimes share the plate.[2]
Preparations and recipes
- Chef Nak, NHUM: Recipes from a Cambodian Home Kitchen
- Beef tenderloin marinated in palm sugar, oyster and soy sauces, seared with garlic and served with a Kampot pepper, salt and lime dip.
References 6
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Chef Nak Home Dining, Beef Lok Lak Recipe (Cambodian Shaking Beef) - CHEF NAK
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Grantourismo Travels, Beef Lok Lak Recipe - Cambodian Pepper ... - Grantourismo Travels (2017-01-25)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Visit Angkor, Beef Lok Lak - the Cambodian national dish. With recipe (2024-06-06)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Marion's Kitchen, Cambodian Pepper Beef (Lok Lak) - Marion's Kitchen (2021-08-04)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 VICE Munchies, Charles Parkinson, Meet the London Chef Serving Cambodian Dishes That Escaped a Genocide (April 1, 2016)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Spicy Gelato Kitchen, Beef Lok Lak (Shaking Beef) (2022-05-26)
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