Hot & spicy belacan prawns

This is a tempting spicy dish which is fragrant and bursting with flavour! With local flavour thrown in with the presence of belacan, we enjoyed the lip smacking lunch at home.

Belacan, is a Malay-Indonesian sauce made with dried shrimp paste, is a dense mixture of fermented ground prawns. It is commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine. It is pungent in smell and the strong fishy flavour will dissipates during cooking, which in turn will help you to clear the congested nasal passage. :)

You can indulge in spicy belacan prawn if you're hankering for some traditional true-blue Malaysian cuisine. This dish totally captures the essence of Malaysian cooking and is one of the authentic cuisine derived from the rich multicultural culinary heritage of Malaysia.

Prawns are seasoned with traditional Malaysian ingredient - chillies, belacan and curry leaves to give a wonderful fragrant aroma. The curry leaves lend a distinct flavor and complement the richness of belacan, and the chilli padi (bird's eye chillies) add an extra kick to the dish. The wonderful aromas wafting over to us when we opened up the aluminium parcel with the rumbling stomachs. It's such a wonderful dish to whet our appetite!

If you running out of aluminium foil, alternatively, you can deep-fry the prawn briskly in hot oil until golden brown. Dish and drain, put aside. Then sauté the pounded spices with the previous fried prawn added in again and stir well to coat.

Method :

1. Pound the dried prawns (presoaked in warm water for half an hour and drained), shallot, bird's eye chillies, red chillies, belacan and curry leaves with a mortar and pestle until fine. Alternatively, all the spices can be blended using blender or food processor with some oil added in.

2. Heat up oil. Sauté the pounded/blended spices mixture, stir-fry briskly over high heat, then turn to mediun low heat until fragrant. When the colour of the spices mixture changed from chilli red to dark brownish-red, add in seasoning and stir well.

3. Place all the prawns in Aluminium foil, pour in the previous sautéed sauce (in Method 2) and wrap up neatly.

4. Bring 100ml water to boil in a clean wok. Place the above prawn parcel in the wok, close lid and simmer for 15 minutes (or until water is dry and Aluminium parcel puffs up). Ready to serve.