Homemade Prawn Sambal Paste & Stink Bean 臭豆不臭
People call it stink bean or 'petai' in Malay because of its strong smell. It lingers in the mouth and body, especially the after taste breathe, even when u gas, pee or poo poo. It is something like durian, you like it or hate it! But I love it! Unlike durian's pungent smell and immediate distinct taste, there is a delayed response when it comes to petai. As you chew, it slowly emits a pungency similar to garlic.
Now is the season for petai, same as durian. Is it all stink food come in the same season? Petai is gathered from the wild or cultivated tree in the jungles. So, call it organic vegetables from the jungle! I heard from my mom that there was a Malay man who always sold 100 of pods off stink bean to my late-grandfathers passed away because of falling down from the 3 storey high stink bean wild tree.
Mom made too much shrimp paste for 1 cup of petai. You can only see a few petai embedded in the paste. Truly the paste is amazing and full of flavour because mom use her secret recipe to cook it and I am going share with you. This is also one of my favourite mom's cook and the best petai dish! My bro in law love it, so does Ah Boy!
I was late to see my mom blending the paste. So, my mom tried her best to tell me everything while I was helping her to stir the paste. The recipe is very simple. The time consuming part is where you need to take some times to stir the paste until it dry out and aromatic.
Ingredients
2 cup petai seeds
5 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup tamarind water
Paste:
3 large red onions
10 medium shallots
1 handful dried shrimp
5-7 dried long red chilli
1 tbsp belachan/ 0.5cm thick slice of belachan (shrimp paste)
1 stalk lemongrass (optional)
water
Directions
- Remove the petai seeds from the pods.
- Put all the ingredients for making paste in a blender. Cover with water, about 1/3 level of the ingredients. Blend everything until smooth.
- Heat the oil in wok.
- Pour the paste into the wok. Stir until fragrant in medium to low fire (could take up to 10 minutes).
- Add in tamarind water and petai. Stir.
- Add in sugar to taste.
- Ready to serve.
Notes
- If you made too much of the paste, you can freeze it in the freezer. The paste is good to go with any seafood or vegetable dish although it is good enough to eat alone with rice!
- You may add prawns and squids in this dish!
- You may reduce the amount of oil to 3 tbsp. Then only add more oil whenever you think is needed while stirring the paste,
Petai is a very nutritious vegetables. It helps to control blood pressure. It is also full of fibre which helps in constipation and sugar control.
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