Petai & Prawns in TomYum paste

My all time favorite dish & it is my mom's signature dish. Whenever she cooked this dish, will eat 2 bowls of rice. :p

Easy to prepare. 

Petai & Prawns in tomyum paste. 

Ingredients

400g prawns (deshelled)

1 big onions cut into 8 chuncks

1 big tomato cut into 8 chuncks 

200g packet of petai halved 

2 - 3 tbsp oil 

Preparation steps : 

1. Heat up the oil in the pan / wok. 

2. Add in the prawns, stir occasionally until all the prawns are fully cooked. Dish out & set aside. Keep the juice from the cooked prawns for gravy. 

3. Add a little more oil if there is not enough oil. Add the onions & fry until fragrant. Add the tomyum paste & petai & fry for a few minutes. Add in the tomato, when the tomato turned soft. Add the prawns & it's juice too. 

4. Add a few tbsp of water to get some gravy if too dry. A few good mix & dish out. 

5. Served with steamed white rice. 

Bon appétit !

Otah-otah

Can't wait until we are back in Singapore to have these. Looked up YouTube for recipes & decided to try the recipe from video below.

Video tutorial by theMEATMENsg

http://youtu.be/aRS73J1NLDk

Recipe from jiaksimi.sg

http://jiaksimi.sg/index.php/recipe/otah-otah/

The ingredients in summary:

30g dried chili

30g lemongrass

4 kaffir leaves

250g shallots 

10 candlenuts 

1 tbsp turmeric powder 

25g galangal 

20g belacan / prawn paste

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp sugar 

1 tsp salt 

400g fish meat & 200g prawn meat 

2 eggs

100ml coconut milk 

They turned out very yummy & not enough to go around. ;)

Chin's notes:

1. I used tilapia fish meat instead of mackerel / batang. 

2. I used fish curry powder mix instead of turmeric powder. 

3. I will try with calamari / crab meat in the future. 

4. Added on 26/07/2015. Made some prawns otah-otah, by replacing the fish meat with prawns. ;p I prefer the prawn's version.

Sambal belacan

Sambal belacan, is a comfort food for me. Like to make them in advance, stored in a bottle & eat it with my food anytime. I like to add them to my rice, to my fried noodles or when we are having hot pot ( steamed boat ). 

My sambal was pounded with my stone pounder. It takes a longer time but worth it all. The texture of the sambal is smoother & less watery. 

Stone Pounder

An easy recipe from Betty Yew's Asian Delights - All time favourite recipes. A recipe book which I have since I was in secondary school. 

Sambal Recipe : 

Ingredients 

5cm x 5cm x 1/2 cm piece of shrimp paste ( belacan ) 

8 fresh chilies

Fresh calamansi lime 

Preparation: 

1. Roast belacan in a pan until fragrant. 

2. Pound chilies until smooth with a stone pounder / food processor. 

3. Squeeze some calamansi juice on the pounded chilies. 

Voilà! 

Chin's notes :

1. Stone pounder takes a longer time but it does not cause the chilie paste to be too watery & the texture of the sambal is smoother. 

2. Bird eye chilies can be used instead of fresh chilies ( about 1 big handful). They can be very spicy hot!  Remove some of the seeds if you prefer less spicy hot. 

3. Belacan used

"Cheat" Pandan Wrap Chicken

Pandan wrap chicken was made easy with tomyum paste. I didn't bother to cut the chicken into small pieces & wrap them nicely in a little parcel. They turned out delicious!

Pandan wrap chicken with TomYum paste. 

Ingredients : 

8 Chicken thighs - cleaned. Debone & cut  them into smaller pieces if you like. 

2 lemon grass - only the white part

6 shallots 

2 big tbsp tomyum paste 

2 tsp sugar, add more if you like them sweeter. 

Chillie flakes ( optional ) 

Salt to taste

Some Pandan leaves / skrewpine leaves - cleaned & soften with hot water. 

Bamboo skewers ( soaked in water for 30 mins )  to hold the Pandan leaves 

Preparation methods : 

1. Clean  chicken & cut them into smaller pieces / remove the bones if you like.

2. Marinades : Pound shallows, lemon grass into paste. Add in the salt , sugar , chillie flakes & tomyum paste. Mix well. 

3. Marinate the chicken well with the marindes.

4. Wrap the chicken with pandan leaves & secured them with the bamboo skewer. 

5. Set aside for 3 hrs or best to marinate overnight. 

6. Pan fried the chicken with some oil to "seal" the meat & get the burnt looking pandan leaves. Transfer to a baking tray. 

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree C for 15 mins & turned to grill for 5-10 mins to get the cripy edges. 

Bon appétit ! 

Chin's notes: 

1. If you like more spicy, can add 1 - 2 tbsp of curry power. 

2. If you do not wish to "seal" the chicken, skip step 6 & bake them in the oven for a longer period. 

3. Or you can continue to pan fried (step 6) until the chicken is fully cooked.