Sambal Belacan Prawns

In the last 4 months my son has gone on a school picnic for the 2nd time. This time it was to the Bollywood veggie farm. I hardly remember me having any kind of picnic while I was his age:) This time I dint accompany him but asked my maid to go along with him. I have noticed that he is very well behaved & friendly with my maid. If I am around he simply tries to throw tantrums & I find it very difficult to handle him outside. Last time I had a crazy time when I went along with him to the chicken farm picnic. This time My maid was saying that he was so good & quite that the teachers were surprised to see him that way. He is the naughty & loud one in the class:)

 I was just talking to my other Mommy friends & they too had similar things to share. The kids generally throw tantrums at their mom's & I think they love doing it. After all that enjoyment at the picnic, there was slight drizzle which has made my boy sick. He has been having high fever since saturday & is recovering now.

Since zion  was unwell we did not do much over the weekend. We just took him out in the evening for a walk to the nearby mall. We suddenly happened to taste Dulce le leche ice cream at Baskin Robbins & loved the taste. Since I had all the ingredients to make this, I tried this one & It turned out amazing! I will be posting this recipe soon.

Coming back to today's post, Ramadan being around the corner, I wanted to post as many non veg dishes as possible . You wont believe that I have more than 50 pending posts sitting in my laptop. I create most of my recipes, I have even forgotten how I made some of them:) This is a recipe that I tried from one of my fav chef's book "Best of Wan" I love his recipes & this chef is very entertaining. He is a very famous celebrity chef in Malaysia & Singapore. I rarely try his recipes, coz they are very rich & addictive:) If you love rich Malay food, then you must try out recipes from his books. This is Prawns sambal Belacan which is very similar to rendang curry. This is how I made it & I would have slightly modified to suit our taste.

Making time: 45 mins
cooking time: 25- 30 mins
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:

• ½ kg / 1 pound of medium-sized Prawns cleaned
• 4 Tbspn oil
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 cup fry roasted decisated coconut
• 3 Tbsnp Thick coconut cream
• 2 tbspn Turmeric leaves finely chopped to garnish
• 2 Kafir lime leaf finely chopped to garnish
• 1 Tbspn Lemon juice

 

Paste Ingredients: (to be finely ground)

• 10 Shallots (Red Onions), peeled
• 15 dried Chilis soaked in hot water to soften and drain
• 2 Tbspn chopped lemon grass
• 1 Tbspn chopped galangal
• 3 Tbsp roasted dry Shrimps
• 3 Kaffir lime leaf chopped
• 1 Tbspn minced ginger & garlic
• 2 Tbspn chopped Turmeric leaf
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 Tspn Tamarind Paste
• 1/4 tspn Palm sugar (Jaggery)

Directions:

1. Heat Oil and sauté the Paste until fragrant. Lower the heat in order to not burn the spices. Cook slowly till oil surface or separates.
2. Add around 1/4 cup of hot water & bring this gravy to boil. Immediately bring down the heat & add thick coconut cream
3. Add in Turmeric leave, White Sugar (or Palm Sugar), and salt. Simmer until the gravy thickens.
4. Add in the Prawns and continue to simmer until the water from the prawns releases & cook until the gravy is slightly dry. This should take not more than 5 mins.
5. Turn off the fire and add in Kaffir Lime Leaves, turmeric leaves and roasted desiccated Coconut Paste. Stir them well.

 

Note:

1. Prawns cook really fast so do not over cook them. If you cook longer they will turn out chewy/rubbery.
2. Sometimes depending on the type of kadai you use, you might require more oil for frying the masala paste. So add it according to your preference
3. If you life the dish more spicy add more chili's if you want.
4. Try & serve this dish fresh to enjoy the juiciness of the prawns
5. I would advice you to use fresh Prawns or shrimps.
6. Since I dont like & stand the smell on ready Belacan paste, I skipped adding that & replaced it with dry roasted shrimps.