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Cambodia Unit

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Cambodia is a mystery to me. Actually let me rephrase that, Cambodia fell into the grouping of countries I knew existed but didn’t know much about. I knew there were events that happened in Asia, but I didn’t know exactly where they happened. Thanks to our Cambodia Unit I now know where some of those events happened, sadly they weren’t happy events, which made this geography lesson a bit of a mixed bag.

Cambodia Unit

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Cambodia Unit resources

Cambodia Unit Asia geography

Our library had two books for Cambodia, and both of them were actually fairly good:

But, of course, we watched our now standard Geography Now video.

 

Comments down in our Cambodia notebooking pages section.

Cambodia Recipe: Sweet and Sour Chicken

I was not expecting to find sweet and sour chicken as a recipe for Cambodia, but it looked fun to try.

Sweet and Sour Chicken ingredients

  • 4 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
  • 1/2 cup diced bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup diced white onion
  • 1 cup pineapple chunks

Sauce ingredients

  • 1 cup pineapple juice
  • 1/3 cup sugar (I probably did closer to 1/4 cup)
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce (yes I do buy that large of a container, we use it fairly often)
  • 3 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Cambodia Sweet and Sour Chicken main dish asia

Make that sweet and sour chicken!

  1. Heat oil to high (I used sesame oil because I like the taste)
  2. Add the onion and let cook for about 30 seconds and then add the red bell peppers. Let these cook for about 2 minutes.
  3. Now add the chicken and cook that on high for a minute, and then turn it down to finish cooking
  4. As the chicken is just about done cooking add the pineapple and let it carmelize just the littlest bit

While all that is going on, make the sauce:

  1. Add all the ingredients for the sauce and heat to boiling.
  2. Mix the cornstarch with some more pineapple juice, and slowly add it into the sauce as you mix it in (you must be stirring as you add it in or you’ll end up with lumps, grumble grumble I do not have enough hands sometimes)
  3. Let reduce just a little bit and then add to the cooked chicken mixture

Overall, this is exactly what sweet and sour chicken should taste like, and I enjoyed it. However, most of the people in my family aren’t a big fan of sweet meat, so the general comment was, “That’s exactly what this dish should taste like,” brief pause, “I don’t like it.”

You can’t win them all.

Yield: 4

Cambodia Sweet and Sour Chicken

Cambodia Sweet and Sour Chicken

Create this traditional Asian recipe with a Cambodian twist.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 4 chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces
  • 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup diced white onion
  • 1 cup diced pineapple chunks
  • 2 tablespoons sesame oil
  • For the sauce:
  • 1 cup pineapple juice and 2 tablespoons divided
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 to 1.5 tablespoons cornstarch

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a pan. When the oil is sizzling add the onions. About thirty seconds later add the red bell peppers.
  2. After the vegetables have cooked for a couple of minutes add the chicken and sear it, then turn the heat down and continue to cook the chicken, stirring occasionally to make sure nothing sticks.


While the chicken is cooking

  1. Add all the ingredients for the sauce but the cornstarch and extra 2 tablespoons of pineapple juice and bring to a pool as you mix it together.
  2. While that is heating combine the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons of the pineapple juice. Slowly mix that into the the rest of the sauce as you pour it in.
  3. Let the sauce reduce, and add to the chicken mixture.

Cambodia Unit: Notebooking pages

As I stated at the start, I didn’t really know much about Cambodia beyond vague pictures of tropical jungles and all sorts of images like that.

When I looked up the books, I found out Angkor Wat (which I have to double-check the spelling of every time I type it, because I’ve misspelled it so many times) was there and it twigged a few memories.

Cambodia unit notebooking pages

But the thing I learned was the Khmer Rouge happened there. I grew up hearing that phrase thrown about, but no one really said just where it went on the world. Looking up when it happened, I should have learned at least a little bit about it, but let’s be honest most history courses in the 90s ended shortly after World War 2.

But, the facts we had, were kind of sad because Cambodia isn’t particularly wealthy.

It has the most landmines in a country, and because of that there are over 500 amputations per month.

Their history is sad because they are constantly being taken over by different groups. That seems to have ended for now, but as a result, it’s a country in recovery, which makes me sad.

Cambodia Unit geography lessons for homeschooling

More Geography lessons

“Cambodia. Angkor Wat.” by Anne & David (Use Albums) is marked with CC PDM 1.0

The post Cambodia Unit appeared first on Adventures in a Messy Life.


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