Fried Sweet Potato Leaves with sambal belacan

Fried Sweet Potato Leaves with sambal belacan

Sweet potato leaves can be eaten. The young shoots are plucked and can be eaten raw or cooked. It can be boiled, fried or just taken raw. The young leaves can be cooked into many dishes. Some of the dishes are lemak, curry and  stir-fry with sambal belacan.

It is easy to plant  sweet potato. Usually they are planted from cuttings. Just take the stem from the plant with some shoots left and plant it on the ground. The soil should be sandy for it to grow well. If the cuttings cannot be obtainable, the sweet potato tubers can also be used to plant. Just take the old tubers with shoots. Put in on the ground or pots to grow it.

The leaves contains a lot of vitamin A, B and C.

Ingredients:

 

a few bunches sweet potato leaves

3 fresh chillies
1 cm belacan (shrimp paste)
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. Wash and pluck sweet potato leaves
2. Pound the chillies with belacan till fine to make sambal belacan.
3. Heat up a wok.When hot, fry the pounded chillies and stir-fry the vegetables for a few minutes.
4. Add some seasoning for better taste.

Traditional Sambal Belacan

Traditional Sambal Belacan

Sambal belacan is one of the famous Malaysian condiments. It is usually eaten with white rice together with other dishes. It makes the food nicer (or should i say spicier) and more appetizing. Also, the use of sambal belacan does not stops here. You can also use as one of the ingredients for your cooking to replace plain chillies. It will add more taste and flavour to the dish.

Traditional Sambal Belacan

Now, let's learn how to make sambal belacan the traditional way from scratch. Firstly, you'll need to have a stone mortar (like the one in the picture below). If you don't have one, don't fret, you can alternatively use food processor or a blender. It will do the task just as well. But then again, some old folks would tell you that using stone mortar will make all the difference. The taste and texture of the sambal belacan using stone mortar is far superior compared to the any electrical device. So if you've got the time, go find yourself a stone mortar:P

Things you'll need to prepare

Sambal Belacan Recipe

Ingredients:

• 8 fresh chillies

• 1 inch cube shrimp paste (belacan)

• 1 tsp salt

• 2 fresh kalamansi lime (limau kasturi)

Method:

1. Fry belacan in a kuali with a little oil.

2. Put fried belacan in a stone mortar and pound it together with salt and chillies.

3. Pound till all the seeds are fine. Optional, you can remove the seeds before pounding. Pound till the chillies are fine.

4. Squeeze 2 fresh kalamansi lime juice to the sambal belacan paste.

5. It is ready to be serve and eaten :D

Yummy, sambal belacan :)

Preparation time: 10 mins

Tips:
a) To prevent the chillies from splashing all over the place during pounding, put a piece of plastic on top of the stone mortar or use your hand to cover the top opening of the mortar.
b)For storage, put the sambal belacan paste in a clean container in the refridgerator. It can last about a week.

Sambal belacan ladies finger

Sambal belacan ladies finger

This dish is quite similar to my older post of spicy dried shrimps with cucumber. It is an appetising dish and easy to prepare. My friend told me that it is good for people whose knee joints are painful. Maybe it acts as a lubricant.

Ingredients:




7 ladies finger (bendi)
3 tbsp sambal belacan3 ripe lime



Method:

1. Blanch ladies finger for a few minutes in pot.

2. Drain the water and cut about 3 cm in length.

3. Put sambal belacan on top with squeezed lime.

4. Serve on a plate.



serving 3-4 person

cooking time: 5 minutes.

Spicy dried shrimps with cucumber

Spicy dried shrimps with cucumber

This recipe is simple and delicious. My good friend shared this recipe with me. Meat was added to this recipe. In my original recipe I added chicken gizzard and liver.

Ingredients:

• 1 cucumber (sliced thinly)


• tbsp dried shrimps (pounded)


• 1- 2 tbsp sambal belacan


• 30 g meat (boiled and sliced)


• 3 tbsp lime juice


• a pinch of salt


• 1 teasp sugar

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together.
2. Serve on a plate.

Nyonya Fried Rice

Nyonya Fried Rice

Fried rice is a simple dish. Left over rice can be fried the day after. It is nicer if you use overnight rice.

Ingredients:

• 2 bowls cooked overnight rice

• 1 tbsp sambal belacan

• 2 tbsp mixed vegetables

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 50 g fresh small prawns (shelled)

• 1 tbsp dried shrimps

• 2 eggs (beaten)

• 3 tbsp oil

• a dash of pepper

• a pinch of salt

Method:
1. Heat up a frying pan with 1 tbsp oil and pour beaten eggs. When the eggs are cooked, flip to the other side. Dish out, rolled and slice thinly. Put aside for garnishing.

2.. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok. Fry sambal belacan and dried shrimps together. Add fresh shrimps and fry till fragrant.

3. Add in rice and mixed vegetables together. Add soy sauce, pepper and salt to taste. Fry for a few minutes till the rice looks fluffy.

4. Serve on a plate with sliced cucumber and chillies.


cooking time: 10 minutes

serving: 3 person

Note: There are ready-made sambal belacan in the market. Sambal belacan recipe can also be found in my earlier post.