Cambodia's all-purpose dipping sauce, a pounded blend of garlic, chili, lime and palm sugar loosened with fish sauce and water, often thickened with toasted crushed peanuts for body.
Teuk trey, literally 'fish water', is the condiment Cambodians reach for at nearly every meal, dabbed onto grilled meats, fried fish, spring rolls and raw vegetables alike. Each cook tunes the five pillars of salty, sour, sweet, spicy and pungent to taste, and the peanut-thickened Koh Kong style from the coast is among the most beloved versions.
One taste delivers everything at once: salty, sour, sweet and fiery, with garlic's pungency cutting underneath. The peanut version turns nuttier and more substantial, clinging to whatever you dip into it.
Pounding garlic and chili ruptures their cells to release pungent and capsaicin-rich oils that disperse evenly through the liquid. Balancing fish sauce, lime and palm sugar tunes the sauce across all five tastes, while crushed peanuts add fat and body that make it cling.
Variations
Koh Kong peanut style, simple lime-garlic version, with grated carrot and daikon, extra chili for fiery heat
On the Palate
Where Teuk Trey (Khmer Dipping Sauce) sits in the Cambodian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
8 steps · 10 min
- 12 min
Peel the garlic and trim the chilies, removing seeds for a milder sauce.
- 22 min
Pound the garlic and chilies in a mortar into a rough paste.
Watch outPound the garlic and chili until the fibers break down into a rough wet paste and smell sharply pungent — that release is what carries the heat through the whole sauce.
- 31 min
Add palm sugar and pound until it begins to dissolve.
- 41 min
Squeeze in lime juice and pound to combine.
- 51 min
Stir in fish sauce and a little water to reach a balanced, sippable consistency.
Watch outThin with fish sauce and a little water until it's balanced and light enough to sip — it should coat a spoon thinly, not sit thick like a jam.
- 61 min
Taste and adjust the salty, sour, sweet and spicy balance.
Watch outTaste and tune the salty-sour-sweet-spicy until no single one jumps out; a squeeze more lime or pinch of sugar is how you land it.
- 71 min
Fold in toasted crushed peanuts for the Koh Kong style if desired.
- 81 min
Spoon into small dishes and serve alongside grilled or fried food.
