RECIPE: PAK CHOY BELACAN

I know, I know I went overboard. Two hot dishes in a night. But you can't have sambal without with some sort of spicy vege so pak choy belacan it is. It is a bit runny as I added a bit of extra water so that there was something to 'wet' the rice down a bit. So here's my version of pak choy belacan!

PAK CHOY BELACAN
Ingredients

2 bundles of pak choy – cut into half diagonally, separating the vegetable between the leafy part and the stalk.
Thumb size belacan – wrap in a bit of foil and heat 180°c oven for 5 to 10 mins
4 to 5 cloves garlic
2 to 3 shallots (not spring onion) – you can substitute with half a brown or red onion
3 to 4 tsp ‘Galiko’ or ‘John West’ crushed chilli or 3 to 4 fresh red chilli (deseeded if you can’t take the heat). I used Galiko today.
2 tsp dried prawns – soaked in hot water for 10 mins and drained
2 tbsp or more of light soy sauce (use Chinese soy sauce and not Japanese such as Kikkoman as it is too salty for this type of cooking)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Few drops of sesame oil (optional) and salt to taste



Method

In a mortar and pestle (or food processor) pound garlic, shallots/onion, chillies, dried prawns and belacan.

Heat oil in wok and fry pounded ingredients for 1 min. If mixture is dying up too soon, lower heat and moisten with a few splashes of soy sauce.

Add in the stalk part of the pak choy. Blend with the paste and cover the wok for 30 sec.

Add in the leafy part and if the mixture is too dry, add a bit of water or more soy sauce. Check salt and add some if required.

When the leaves have changed colour (you don’t want to over cook the vegetable. The stalk should still be crunchy when it is eaten), remove from heat. Add in few drops of sesame oil.

Serve as a side dish with rice.

By the way, there is a Pineapple Cheesecake setting in the fridge right now. But that is, after all, another story! Till tomorrow then.

PS: Hopefully it is still there when I visit tomorrow!