Friday, April 18, 2008

Prawn Sambal with Petai... aka... Stink Beans.............

My plate of prawn sambal with petai............................

Wonder how many of you had a liking for this spicy dish cook with petai also known as stink beans. Those who had acquired the taste for these beans which has a pervasive strong smell, will find it heavenly. Petai is also called stink beans because it contains certain amino acids that emits a strong pungent smell that will lingers in the mouth and urine for up to 2 days after consumption. So it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

I recently bought 2 small packets of stink beans from a hypermarket and could not resist cooking this with prawn sambal which I am the only one at home who had an acquired taste for this stinky beans. I love to share it with my readers over here....

Ingredients:

150 gm stink beans (petai)
250 gm medium sized prawns
1 stalk lemon grass (serai)
2 slices of galangal (lengkuas)
4 nos fresh chillis
3 cm fresh tumeric (kunyit)
5 shallots -sliced
2 cloves garlic -sliced
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp dried prawn paste (belacan)
1 tbsp tamarind pulp(asam jawa)- dissolve in 150ml water and strained
salt to taste

Method:

Peel prawns, clean and set aside. Put lemongrass, galangal, shallots, garlic, chillis, tumeric and belacan in a blender and blend together til fine. Heat oil in pan and stirfry the blended chilli paste on low heat til fragrant. Then add in prawns . Fry for a minute with the paste and add in stink beans. Stir for a minute and add in the strained tamarind juice. Cook til gravy is thick but not dry. Add salt to taste. Serve hot with rice.

Stink beans that had to be removed from the clusters of pods.


The petai which looks like broad beans......taken out from pods.
For those on dates it is better not to take this dish hours before dating or else you would frighten away your boyfriends or girlfriends with this pungent odour left on your mouth and body...........

9 comments:

Lee said...

Hi Sweet Jasmine...this is one dish I will take a pass. It stinks to High Heaven, ha ha.
Holy Smoke! I remember the olddays I used to fly to East Coast, even West Coast or Sarawak and you know when somebody has eaten this dish...the bathroom stinks!
The market here sells them, from Thailand, but none of our Malaysian friends dare cook it at our dinner parties...afraid bathroom stinks.
My wife will eat it, but no thanks for me.
But I certainly love that assam pomfret dish in my blog posting presently.
Wow! You a gourmet cook, and your this dish looks so delicious, can even get the strong spicy scent here, ha ha.
By the way, Jasmine, you have Nonya genes in you? Ha ha.
Gosh, you post everyday? Lee.

古墓街第7号當鋪 said...

Zomg. Curry peTai ><
Remind me those days when i was
eating in Malay area*

Sweet Jasmine said...

U.lee- Hi,lee...you seems to be my no.1 fan...getting the first comment here most of the time.. yeah...this stinks til all yr SYT will run away from you...no wonder you do not take it....ha..ha..
I actually do not like the smell in the bathroom..but i love eating these petais.....so just clean the bathrooms with dettol or pines disinfectant after that....
I certainly had some nyonya genes in me ....seeing all the nyonya food in my blog.....
Cheers to you....

Nightwing said...

Thanks for sharing this..i think if i eat..2 plate of rice...:)

Sweet Jasmine said...

jeromefo -yeah..malays love it too..can be eaten raw with sambal belacan....

A Mature Student said...

I have never tried petai until 2001 when we were in Malaysia. My brother boasted about how his wife makes the best petai dish.

I tried it and it didn't taste pungent or smelly to me. I also didn't notice the after effect.

Sweet Jasmine said...

hi, J....I think you had not taken enough petais to emit that kind of strong odour in your urine ...or maybe your body can absorb those amino acids thoroughly....i do not have body odour like some others...but cannot escape the awful smell in the urine.....

Jys said...

i love petai especially with sambal!! yummy!

my aunt told me before cooking, soak the petai in water with ice cube, it makes the petai crunchier..

check out my version of sambal petai,
http://jys-yummy.blogspot.com/2007/10/sambal-petai.html

Sweet Jasmine said...

joyce - hi,....glad to see you here and is also one of my kind (i mean petai lovers)...ha..ha

And thks for sharing the ice-cube tips here....will go and check yr version of the sambal next...
Cheers....