Life is Great

Today it is my turn to cook dinner again. After much contemplation and ten minutes spent on sizing up raw ingredients available in the fridge, I settled on belacan (a spicy shrimp paste) snakes beans with shrimps stir-fry and my favorite fried eggs with onion.

Snake beans are dark green crumpled-looking curly long beans believed to originate from Northern China. It is tougher than other beans when raw but can be softened with the correct cooking method. Snake beans are considered the most nutritious of all beans as it contain more fiber than other types of green beans. The following is the homemade recipe from moi.

Belacan Snakes Beans with Shrimps
Serves 4

•   100 gms of snake beans (boiled and chopped into 1/4 inch lengths)


•   80 gms of fresh large shrimps (cleaned, shelled with tail intact)


•   1/4 cup of water


•   2 tbsps of oil


For the belacan mix:


•   5 red chillies


•   8 cili padi (optional)


•   2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)


•   2 inches old ginger (finely chopped)


•   4cm piece belacan (roast till fragrant)


•   Pinch of salt


•   1 limau kasturi

Pound chillies until rather coarse in texture. Add in garlic and ginger. Break up roasted belacan and add into chilli mixture gradually. Continue to pound until texture is neither too smooth nor too coarse. Add pinch of salt. Put mixture in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice in and mix well.

Heat oil in wok and stir-fry shrimps till color change. Remove promptly into a strainer. Add in belacan mix to the wok and fry till fragrant. Return shrimps to the belacan and stir for a minute before adding water. Add in snake beans and toss evenly. Serve hot with warm rice.

I also managed to prepare an extremely sour concoction of iced Granny Smith green apple juice with asam boi. Aaahhhh... what a fulfilling Sunday dinner.

Good night.