Steamed curry ( km, អាម៉ុក, ; th, ห่อหมก ,
, lo, ຫມົກ, ) is a
Southeast Asian
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
type of
curry
A curry is a dish with a sauce seasoned with spices, mainly associated with South Asian cuisine. In southern India, leaves from the curry tree may be included.
There are many varieties of curry. The choice of spices for each dish in trad ...
steam-cooked in
banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry (botany), berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa (genus), Musa''. In some countries, Cooking banana, bananas used for ...
leaves. In
Laos it is also roasted on
embers. The base of the curry is made with a
curry paste ( km, គ្រឿង, ; th, พริกแกง, ) with or without the addition of
coconut cream
Coconut milk is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of coconut milk are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food in ...
or
coconut milk
Coconut milk is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of coconut milk are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food i ...
and
eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
. A wide range of leaves and staple ingredients are also added to the dish, such as:
*
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% ...
( km, អាម៉ុកត្រី, ; th, ห่อหมกปลา, ; lo, ຫມົກປາ, );
*
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...
shoots ( th, ห่อหมกหน่อไม้, ; lo, ຫມົກຫນໍ່ໄມ້, (often with
minced meat inside));
*
chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domestication, domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey junglefowl, grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster ...
( km, អាម៉ុកសាច់មាន់, ; th, ห่อหมกไก่, );
*
snails
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Ga ...
( km, អាម៉ុកខ្យង, );
*
tofu
Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super fi ...
( km, អាម៉ុកតៅហ៊ូ, ; th, ห่อหมกเต้าหู้, );;
*
algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms. The name is an informal term for a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from ...
( lo, ຫມົກໄຄ, (with
Mekong weed)).
According to cultural anthropologist Penny Van Esterik, the Southeast Asian coconut-based curries are the result of
Indianization, that in the 15th century after the
Fall of Angkor, were introduced in the
Ayutthaya Kingdom
The Ayutthaya Kingdom (; th, อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ) was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom is consi ...
by Khmer royal
cooks and later reintroduced back into Cambodia as the Siamese armies attacked into Cambodia. Nowadays, they are considered characteristic of individual Southeast Asian cuisines.
See also
* ''
Otak-otak
''Otak-otak'' (lit. brains in Malay and Indonesian) is a Southeast Asian fish cake made of ground fish mixed with spices and wrapped in leaf parcels. ''Otak-otak'' is traditionally served steamed or grilled, encased within the leaf parcel it ...
'', similar fish dumpling, a Nyonya Peranakan cuisine common in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia
* ''
Pepes
''Pepes'' is an Indonesian cooking method using banana leaves as food wrappings. The banana-leaf package containing food is secured with ''lidi seumat'' (a small nail made from the central ribs of coconut leaves), and then steamed or grilled on c ...
'', Indonesian dish cooking method by wrapping in banana leafs
* ''
Botok
''Botok'' or ''ꦧꦺꦴꦛꦺꦴꦏ꧀'' ''(Bothok)'' (sometimes called as ''Bobotok'' in its plural form or ''Botok-botok'') is a traditional Javanese dish made from shredded coconut flesh which has been squeezed of its coconut milk, often ...
'', similar Indonesian
Javanese dish wrapped in banana leaf
References
Southeast Asian curries
Curry dishes
Steamed foods
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