One of my favorite quick meal is fried rice, and of all the different versions, one of my favorites would be the good old fashion sambal belacan fried rice.

Since it isn’t exactly a popular dish at hawker centres or Chinese/Malay restaurants, I thought a simple recipe could be helpful for those who are a bit adventures in the kitchen.

sambal belacan fried rice with prawns
sambal belacan fried rice with prawns

First of all, to make sambal belacan fried rice, you must make sambal belacan. No brainer right?

The ingredients couldn’t be simpler, I got them from local market

  • red chili
  • chili padi (optional)
  • belacan (prawn paste)
  • around 10 red chili to 2 table spoons of belacan (approximate)

sambal belacan's ingredients - chili & belacan
sambal belacan’s ingredients – chili & belacan

Here’s how you do it

  • roast the belacan in oven at about 200 degree till fragrant (or stinks, depending on your personal interpretation)
  • cut chili in halves and remove seeds, chop them further to smaller pieces
  • place belacan and chili into mortar and pestle and pound away

The mortar and pestle was obtained for RM 35 at a local market. You can use a blender but it won’t taste the same though. I keep the finished product in an air tight jar in the fridge.

Haze's pounding it the old school way
Haze’s pounding it the old school way

So now that you have the sambal, here is how you make the fried rice, ingredients:

  • 2 servings of rice, well duh! (overnight leftover’s the best)
  • 4-6 prawns – peeled and marinate with a bit of salt
  • 1-2 stalks of scallion, chopped finely
  • 1 egg
  • salt
  • half a tea spoon of dark soya sauce
  • 2 table spoon of sambal belacan

can you smell it?
stir to perfection

Steps:

  • heat up the frying pan with 2-3 table spoon of oil, then fry prawn for about a minute
  • add rice and sambal, stir like mad
  • add the dark soya sauce
  • make an opening in the middle of the frying pan, add a table spoon of oil, and crack the egg
  • add a squirt of soya sauce on egg, then stir like mad
  • add scallions last

Salt is not needed since belacan provides the necessary saltiness to the rice already. The result is two servings of really spicy, fragrant, and rather delicious old school sambal belacan fried rice. Sambal took about 30 minutes to prepare, and fried rice another 15 minutes or so.

Of course, we made more than enough sambal for just cooking fried rice, the actual main intention was to use it as condiment for tau eu bak (braised pork belly with soya sauce), which will be the next recipe I publish here.

KY cooks – Sambal Belacan Fried Rice
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50 thoughts on “KY cooks – Sambal Belacan Fried Rice

    • March 1, 2011 at 11:34 pm
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      Tey Cindy: yesss, and you’re quite a cook yourself too 😀

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 12:22 am
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    wow, a blast from the past! i remember my grandmother in malacca also using a mortar and pestle to make sambal belacan. i rarely manage to eat it nowadays, but the thought of it (the unforgettable flavor!) still makes my mouth water 🙂

    Reply
    • March 2, 2011 at 8:30 am
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      Sean: yah, a classic peranakan style sambal 😀

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 1:12 am
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    tau eu bak… looking forward this.. i like this much

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  • March 2, 2011 at 3:29 am
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    hahahaha….. i love the part u said stir like mad , LOL !! like u wanna kill the rice like dat

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    • March 2, 2011 at 8:31 am
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      June: hahaha else the rice would be unevenly cooked 😛

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  • March 2, 2011 at 6:06 am
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    Wah, my apartment might die if I cook this! Not that I hate belachan but I cannot stand the smell lingering there…

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    • March 2, 2011 at 8:33 am
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      Michelle: hahah yah, reminds me that one time in the States, the campus police had to check my friend’s room for possible corpses just cos they brought in belacan. lol

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 6:06 am
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    wah haze looks like some kampung harlot (in a good way) lol

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    • March 2, 2011 at 8:34 am
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      kimberlycun: hahah yah old school!

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 8:37 am
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    Oh another good hint for the rice is that, if you know you’re going to cook fried rice with them, wash them extra clean to remove the starch!

    Reply
    • March 2, 2011 at 9:02 am
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      Tan Yee Hou: yah that’s a good tip if you want the rice to not be sticky

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 10:44 am
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    Pounding sambal belacan outside the toilet??

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    • March 2, 2011 at 10:51 am
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      Jin: haha yah, over the floor mat so to not damage the tiles. 😀

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 1:04 pm
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    LOL.. At least close the toilet door first la before taking the pic!

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    • March 2, 2011 at 1:59 pm
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      eiling: well at least no one’s sitting inside. 😛

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 1:06 pm
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    i just had lunch and u made me hungry again! 😥 …

    Reply
    • March 2, 2011 at 1:59 pm
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      connie: kekeke paiseh 😀

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 2:02 pm
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    Yummeh!~
    Aw…haze looks like a lil nyonya girl^^ and Cen the village tiger?
    lols… my friend tried this in the US, in the dead of winter and they called the police on him. Suspected decomposing dead body turned out to be the heated belacan -_-“

    Reply
    • March 3, 2011 at 8:19 am
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      Glo-w: hahah village tiger! that’s new!

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 2:43 pm
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    I like cooking Fried Rice because it’s such a versatile dish. You can almost add in anything, spices etc to make it one of a kind. Haha. Thanks for sharing too.

    Reply
    • March 3, 2011 at 8:24 am
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      JD: yeah that’s true, can always be creative 😀

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 3:54 pm
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    i love your kycooks, keep it up! the more recipes here the better!

    Reply
    • March 3, 2011 at 8:24 am
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      Irene: yess there’ll be more, can you imagine last night was like the 5th night in a row that we cook?

      Reply
  • March 2, 2011 at 10:50 pm
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    Very nice bro! Doing it the proper way, all with fresh ingredients from scratch. 🙂

    Reply
    • March 3, 2011 at 8:25 am
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      Huai Bin: haha ya but still not nearly as epic as your stew!

      Reply
  • March 3, 2011 at 11:35 am
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    Haze pose leaves my imagination go wild. hubba hubba.

    Reply
  • March 3, 2011 at 1:29 pm
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    Looks very good! I’d add in a bit of greens if it were me tho, probably some chopped long beans stirred in – yums.

    Reply
    • March 3, 2011 at 2:33 pm
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      ShaolinTiger: yah long bean’s a great idea!

      Reply
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  • March 10, 2011 at 11:54 am
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    normally i would put like 3-4 eggs into it and then extra cili padi..wallah!

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    • March 10, 2011 at 2:45 pm
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      che’burn: haha that’s a lot of egg weii

      Reply
  • March 16, 2011 at 12:00 am
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    why is there a toilet in your kitchen or why are you preparing food on the floor just near the toilet? thats unhygienic.

    Reply
    • March 17, 2011 at 7:07 pm
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      jim: no biggie if your toilet is clean anyway right?

      Reply
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  • June 19, 2013 at 2:53 am
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    haha very funny, pounding the belacan in front of toilet with paper roll hanging

    Reply
    • June 19, 2013 at 8:51 am
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      presa1200: important to keep the toilet clean, heehee

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      • June 19, 2013 at 2:00 pm
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        haha just kidding. i came across your recipe and i like it, the picture looks very promising. thanks

        Reply
        • June 19, 2013 at 2:27 pm
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          presa1200: hahaha cheers!

          Reply
  • January 23, 2014 at 9:57 am
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    I just want to say that I LOVE THIS PAGE! The recipes are so MY TASTE! Thank you so much. Am cooking the fried kicap bawal with veg and soup for dinner!

    Reply
    • January 23, 2014 at 10:39 am
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      Pamela: glad that you liked them 😀

      Reply
  • January 23, 2014 at 9:58 am
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    One Q though…..can u elaborate “stir like mad”? Hilarious!:P

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    • January 23, 2014 at 10:39 am
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      Pamela: stir till you feel like you’re going nuts!

      Reply
  • July 1, 2015 at 8:41 am
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    Love that modern outfit with traditional lesung in the same picture!Hope the cat didn’t get the chili ‘tempias’.

    Reply
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