Long Beans with Dry Shrimp Paste aka Belacan

Long Beans, need I say more?  

What is Belacan? Fermented shrimp paste but not the cincalok type.

How is it made? Small Shrimps are dried then smashed and ground to a paste form together with salt. So you can’t see any shrimp anymore. The paste will be place into a mould shaped into round or square. Then they will be dried in the sun for 2-3 days until its harden. So you will have to cut it out to smaller cubes or pinch it out yourself. Remember to keep them in dry places or keep in refrigerator once the packet is opened to avoid mold or worms.

These days belacan can also be found in powder form packed and sold in supermarket.

Unfortunately they are not as tasty as the cube types. Those cube forms paste smells more fishy then the powder type. So it is definitely more tasty.

It kind of stinks before it is cook but once it is in the pan, you will smell it, the smell will change from the fishy stinking smell to an aromatic smell. This condiment is used mostly in many vegetable frying dish but sometimes also some meat dishes. Let us start cooking and enjoy this delicious mouthwatering long beans.

Ingredient

1 tablespoon dry shrimp (har mai)

3 tablespoon dry shrimp paste or belacan powder

3 baby carrots sliced

Long beans cut to size of 4 cm

Cook and prepare

Fry carrots, remove to plate

Add 2 tablespoon

Fry dry shrimp until caramelized

Add dry shrimp paste or belacan powder

Add a table spoon water if it dries out

Add long beans fry for 5 minutes

Garnish with carrot

Ready to serve

Express Cod Fish

I love pan fry cod fish, it does not just smells good but it taste delicious. Fry till the skin is a little Crispy but not totally crunchy.

Done in 7- 10minutes

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic, 2 shallots

1 spring onion,

3 table spoon soy sauce

2 birds eye chilies

Prepare and cook

Fry garlic, shallots till turns yellow gold

Remove from pan

Fry the fish for 5 minutes

Remove from pan

Add 3 table spoon of soy on top of fish

Add in the fried shallots and garlic with spring onion

Add the cut bird eyes chilies

Ready to serve.

Tofu Bamboo Shoot

Where does it come from? Are bamboo shoots grown on the bamboo like the mango trees? Nop, it is grown on the ground and not the bamboo branch, it is about 5-6inches in size. It is high in fibre and protein but most important is it has a succulent yet crunchy texture but color wise, it is just white or more like beige.

 I don’t grow them myself, but I know it is available in tinned can or vacuum packed, so I picked the vacuum packed from the supermarket. When I was young, grandma used to get narcissus brand bamboo shoot. it is still available in tinned can now.

The only problem is bamboo shoots comes with an odd smell. The vacuum packed I bought has already been clean, therefore the smell is less strong. Some people would say it smells as sour urine smell. All I can do is soak them in water and keep changing water every half hour for about 2 hours. So before your start cooking, you have to start 2-3 hours earlier.

As for the dry mushroom, soak them in another bowl for 2 hours earlier before cooking. This is to make it soft and able to absorb sauce later. Why do I add mushroom to this dish? This is because mushroom has a nice fragrant, it can help cover the left over odd smell of the bamboo shoot. Great combination.

Ingredients

1 soft tofu, 1 piece bamboo shoot

2 dry black mushroom, shredded chicken meat

2 cloves garlic

Prepare and cook

Soak and rinse bamboo shoot every 30 minutes for 2 hours

Slice bamboo shoots

Slice black mushroom

Steam tofu in pot for 10 minutes

Fry garlic 1 minute

Add bamboo shoots, chicken and mushroom

Add 2 tablespoon oyster sauce

Simmer for 5 minutes

Place tofu in centre of plate

Add on the bamboo shoot, chicken and mushroom

Ready to serve

Black Chicken Herbal Soup, Ren Shen Chong Cao Tang

This is another version of Herbal Soup.I bought it from an expensive looking herbal shop named, HockHua Tonic herbal shop. It is almost double the price of the previous packet I bought from another herbal shoplot . So what’s in the box, Ren Shen, Hua Shan, Yu Zhu, JiZhi, DangShen, Chuan Xiong, Chong Cao, Gan Cao, Dung Gui, not to forget they have cooking instructions too.

I am using half the packet of ingredient because the packet label it is for 4 person. Since I am making it for 2 person, I would have to remove half. Having all in the soup might make it too bitter for 2 person.

Ingredients

1 black chicken

½ pack herbal ingredient as mentioned above

Prepare and cook

Parboil chicken 5 minutes, ensure water covers the chicken

Remove impurities

Add herbal ingredients

Bring to boil 20minutes on medium heat

Taste, add salt if required (2 teaspoon)

Low heat Boil 30 minutes, taste again

Boil 30 minutes

Ready to serve

Don’t you think is tiring checking on the soup every 30mins? Those days old folks keep saying they gotta watch fire for the soup. Is this what they meant.  I did this for this soup, checking every 30minutes. Aw … this is really so tiring! Next round of soup cooking, I am just going to add salt after 1.5 hours of boiling.

Logically thinking, if we keep soup boiling for the first 30minutes, the soup taste would be a little sweet, if we add some salt, the taste would be balance. If we keep another 30 minutes (total 1 hour), the soup taste would be sweeter, then you add salt again. . If we keep another 30 minutes (total 1.5 hour), the soup taste would be even sweeter, then you add salt again. Why trouble yourself? So my conclusion, I will only add salt after 1.5 hours after boiling in future.