Tale of a Chilli

One of my project manager (yes, we have a lot of managers at work :p), despite a Dane, he actually worked and stayed in Singapore for 9 years before he came back to Denmark recently. Being so long in a hot & humid tropical country that loves chilli, he too, has been influenced to live with chilli in his life. Instead of buying chilli that is commonly available in ordinary supermarket (and they can be spicy too), he grow his own chilli at home.

One of these days, he was bragging about the spiciness of his home grown chilli and I gave my usual sceptical review on his comment. The next day, I found a chilli, carefully wrapped in kitchen towel, lying quietly on my laptop at work. In order to 'savour' his hard work (in growing the chilli) and effort (for bringing it), I decided to use it in my favourite vegetable dish - kangkung belachan (shrimp paste stir fried water convovulus).

Belacan kangkung

A trip to the Asian shop to get water convuvulus (kangkung / eng chai in hokkien), a few raw tiger prawns, a crab filament stick (that's all I have in the freezer), minced garlic, chicken stock, chopped dried shrimp, belacan plus the 'star' (because it's a gift) ingredient - Kim's home grown chilli, and I'm all set for some wok action.

Ingredient (minus vegetable =.=)

Heat wok on high heat with 1-2 tablespoon of oil until it starts to smoke, do not reduce the heat throughout the whole cooking process to maintain 'wok hei (锅气)'. Add in belacan and stir fried till fragrant, then add in the dried shrimp and chilli, for a few round of quick stir (about 30 seconds). Dried shrimp might get burn at high heat so stir frequently. Then add in minced garlic, stir fried until fragrant, add shrimp and crab filament.

Processed ingredient

Before the prawn is fully cook, add the vegetable. Stir fried until the vegetable's colour turn darker (indicating it's cooked), add in chicken stock (to taste). Water convovolus will release some water during the cooking process but if you like more sauce, then add a few tablespoon of water. Quick stir for another 30 seconds and voila...a plate of spicy steaming full of fragrant kangkung belacan is ready to be served.