ឆ្នាំងចំហុយ

One heat source, several dishes. That is the arrangement a chhnang chomhuy is built for, and it counts for more when the heat is charcoal that has to be lit, fed and put out than when it is a burner that can simply be switched on again. Rice, vegetables and fish can go in together, the tiers swapped top to bottom as each one finishes.

Steam is also the only heat gentle enough for certain dishes. Amok — fish folded through kroeung, coconut cream and egg — is steamed in banana-leaf cups until it sets like a custard, and it will split and weep if it is cooked any harder than that. The same tiers hold num, the steamed rice-flour cakes made for festivals and for offerings, and a whole fish laid flat with ginger and spring onion, where boiling would tear the flesh apart.

The tiers come apart to wash and stack away flat, and a plate set on a rack inside a covered pot does the same job when there is no dedicated steamer in the house — which Cambodian Cookbook says plainly, while singling the steamer out for amok, cakes and fish because its even heat "sets custards without breaking them".

Source: Cambodian Cookbook — Kitchen Equipment