Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Kangkong Belacan ~ Water Convolvulus fried with Spicy Shrimp Paste

I cook this dish of kangkong sambal belacan as often as I can especially during the summer season. That's when it is really cheap and fresh. The aroma from the belacan will make your mouth water. The kangkong have to be stir fried over a very hot stove very quickly so as not to loose its crunchy texture. A simple yet very popular and uncomplicated dish.

sambal kangkong
Ingredients
250 g kangkong
½ Tbsp belacan
1-2 Tbsp dried shrimps
3 red chillies
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves
1-2 Tbsp oil
2-4 Tbsp water


Method
1. Soak dried shrimps with hot water until soft. Drain but reserve the water.
2. Grind together (or use a mortar & pestle) belacan, dried shrimp, chilies, garlic and onion.
3. Heat wok on medium high heat, add oil and fry paste for 3-4 minutes until fragrant.
4. Add kangkong and stirfry for 2-3 minutes on high heat. Add some reserved shrimp water.
5. Serve immediately.

10 Comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, i am wondering where are you based? in NZ? where can you get kangkong?

Thanks

Sinner said...

Chelsia,
I am based in W Auckland.
During summer/autumn, I can get them in most of the asian vegetable shops.

Anonymous said...

mmm...i have been to silverbell and most tofu shops but haven't seen any. I am in st heliers.

Sinner said...

Chelsia,
I too can't wait for the kangkong to start appearing in the shops. There is none at the moment. The SilverBell over here is quite good with their range of chinese veg.

All the veg at the moment is looking a bit pathetic and pricey :(

Anonymous said...

have you thought about starting a shop? if you don't mind I am willing to buy your curry puff or swap with my sarawak laksa paste?

Sinner said...

Chelsia,
A shop...that's a flattering thought but time is a factor. I have too much things to do around here and barely have enough time to make our fav food for ourselves. Thanks for the thought.

Why not try your hand at making the curry puff - it is not too difficult.

You make your own sarawak curry paste? I have seen somewhere that it is a long list of ingredients.

Anonymous said...

I am not sure what to do with the left over deep frying oils later on. How/where do you throw them away? I bought the paste from www.sambalsatu.com and to me they are similar to kopitiam style laksa in kuching.

Sinner said...

Chelsia,
I see your problem. But if you only use the oil once for deepfrying, you should be able to reuse the oil for cooking meat dishes. I try to use a small pot of oil if I am only doing a small amount of deepfrying.

Thanks for the link. I have never eaten Sarawak Laksa before. Must be yum...

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'm back again.... now it's summer, whereabout can I find kangkong? I have substitute them with spinach and ong choi but ...eeeeeeeee.....

email me at cheron99@xtra.co.nz.....

Thank you

Chelsia

Sinner said...

Chelsia, with the weather so hot I don't blame you for thinking summer is here already. I haven't seen any kangkong on sale yet. I will let you know if I see any in the shops. You will have to be more patient ;)

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