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...........

Prawn Sambal.........

For making prawn sambal.....i made the sambal first......here are the ingredients for sambal:

10 dried chillis- soaked,

5 fresh chillis

10 shallots

1 tsp belacan or shrimp paste powder

1 tsp tamarind pulp

4 tablespoon oil

2 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

Method:

Blend the chillis, shallots and shrimp paste in a blender adding a little water for the blades to move. Meanwhile squeeze the tamarind pulp in 1/2 cup of water and strained to get the tamarind juice. Heat oil in pan and fry the chilli paste til oil separates and fragrant.

To make the prawn sambal, add shelled prawns to the sambal and fry for 5 mins til prawns are firm and cooked. Add tamarind juice, sugar and salt to taste. Cook for another 2 mins and it is ready to be served with nasi lemak or rice.

Anchovies or whitebait can be added to the sambal to make ikan bilis sambal. Just remove the heads and guts of fish,then washed and dry it before frying it in hot oil til crispy. Then add to the sambal using the method as for prawns.