Num Ansom Chrouk
នំអន្សមជ្រូក
Num ansom chrouk is the New Year log — sticky rice, pork belly and mung beans bound in banana leaf and boiled for hours. The cake that means Chaul Chnam.
By Cambodian Cookbook Kitchen · June 14, 2026
តាកែវ Takéo & the SouthThe Modern Kingdom era, 1993–present
- Prep
- 120 min
- Cook
- 360 min
- Serves
- 8
- Level
- Advanced
For a week before Chaul Chnam, the Khmer New Year in mid-April, the kitchens of Takéo and every other Cambodian province fill with the grassy smell of banana leaf passing over flame. Num ansom chrouk is the cake of the new year: dense logs of glutinous rice wrapped around pork belly and mung beans, bound in leaf, and boiled for the better part of a day. They are made in quantity — to eat, to give, and to carry to the pagoda as offering — and the making is a family act, several pairs of hands wrapping while a vat mutters on the fire outside. Cakes like this, starch and fat and leaf and long fire, are old. The delta that became Cambodia was cooking rice in leaf packets long before it had kings to hold festivals.
The technique is nothing but discipline. Season everything with the knowledge that it will steam sealed for hours, wrap the logs as tight as your hands can manage, and then respect the clock — five hours minimum, six for a fat log, the water kept at a steady boil the whole way. What emerges is unlike a fresh sticky rice: the grains go glassy and press together into something you slice like a terrine, the pork dissolving into the rice around it, the banana leaf having given up its scent to all of it. Eat the first slice warm, then keep the rest — a well-made ansom holds for days, which is exactly why a festival cake is built to be boiled until it lasts.
Wrap tight and boil long — a loose log leaks and an under-boiled one stays chalky at the core. Six hours is not a typo; this is a cake you commit to.
ពាក្យពីចុងភៅ · A word from the kitchen
Ingredientsគ្រឿងផ្សំ
Serves 8
០ of ១០ gathered
The rice
The filling
To wrap
Methodវិធីធ្វើ
Step 1: Season the components
Toss the drained rice with coconut cream and salt. Marinate the pork strips in fish sauce, pepper and sugar for half an hour. Steam or boil the soaked mung beans until just tender if you want them soft; leave them raw to hold more shape. Everything cooks fully inside the leaf, so season for that.
Step 2: Lay the leaf bed
Overlap two or three softened banana leaves, shiny side up, into a rectangle about the size of a placemat. Passing the leaf briefly over a flame makes it supple and releases its grassy perfume into the rice — this is half the flavour of the finished cake.
Step 3: Build the log
Spread a bed of seasoned rice down the centre, lay a strip of pork and a line of mung beans along it, then cover with more rice so the filling sits dead centre. Aim for a firm cylinder about a hand's width thick — the rice should surround the pork completely.
Step 4: Wrap and bind
Roll the leaves tightly around the log, fold the ends up like a parcel, and bind hard with leaf strips or string at close intervals so nothing can shift or leak. A well-wrapped ansom feels solid as a rolling pin. Loose is the one mistake the pot will not forgive.
Step 5: Boil long and slow
Submerge the logs fully in a large pot of water and boil steadily for five to six hours, topping up with boiling water so they stay covered. The rice goes fully translucent and dense, the pork melts into it, and the whole log firms as it cools. Slice into rounds to serve.
ឧបករណ៍ · The tools
Equipment
Tiered steamer
សម្ភារៈចំហុយStacked tiers for amok cups, steamed cakes, and fish — gentle, even heat that sets custards without breaking them. A wide pot with a rack stands in.
Shop on Amazon →Sticky-rice basket
ចង្អេរThe cone-shaped bamboo basket that steams soaked glutinous rice into fluffy, separate grains — the way sticky rice is meant to be cooked, not boiled.
Shop on Amazon →
Equipment links are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no cost to you. Disclosure.
Questions from the kitchen
Why does it take six hours?
Glutinous rice packed dense inside a leaf and surrounding a strip of pork cooks slowly from the outside in. Anything less and the core stays chalky and the pork stays tough. This is New Year food — made in bulk, the day before, while the family talks. The long boil is part of the ritual.
What is the difference between ansom chrouk and ansom chek?
Chrouk means pork and chek means banana. The savoury pork-and-mung-bean log here is the New Year staple across the south; the sweet banana version is its cousin and belongs to another chapter. Both are wrapped and boiled the same way; only the filling changes.
Can I make them smaller?
Yes, and for a first attempt you should. Shorter, thinner logs wrap more forgivingly and boil in three to four hours. Keep the rice-to-filling ratio the same and the diameter modest, and you will get a clean centre without committing to a full day at the stove.
បន្ទាប់ · Cook next
