Ladies and gentlemen, today we’re going to talk about asparagus. Now most of us associate asparagus as sort of a Western style vegetable, something you find in a fancy restaurant sitting pretty next to your steak (such as this side dish at Mandarin Grill), or being wrapped in bacon and BBQ-ed (ala BBQ Addict’s menu).
You will be right, but I’ve always known asparagus from Sambal Belacan Asparagus, one of my favorite dishes from childhood, a Hokkien/Penang Nyonya specialty of sort.
ingredients for sambal asparagus – sambal, garlic, ginger, dried shrimp
This dish is also surprisingly simple to make, but it is mighty handy if you’ve already have some ready made sambal belacan. For instruction on how to make a jar of wholesome sambal belacan, click here – sambal belacan fried rice.
Anyway, here’s the ingredients:
- a bunch of asparagus, cut into 2-3 inches, only retain the top 2 sections, throw away the bottom wooden parts
- 2 table spoon sambal belacan
- 15 shalots
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 10 dried shrimps
- 4 fresh prawns, peeled
the secret is the steaming
Cooking this dish is fast and simple too!
Instructions:
- use pastel and mortar to pound shallots, garlic, and dried shrimp
- marinate peeled prawns with salt for a couple minutes
- heat up a couple table spoon of cooking oil in medium heat
- throw in prawns first, then everything else
- fry for 5 minutes, then add a quarter cup of water, and close the lid to steam the vegetable for 2-3 minutes
- remove lid and fry again till water evaporates
- food is ready to serve!
a few prawns go a long way
The secret to cooking asparagus is really the steaming part, since the vegetable can be a little tough if not properly cooked, but frying it too long will get the outer layer burnt. So there you go, another recipe from yours truly who reignite the cooking passion ever since our kitchen is renovated. 😀
I’ve recently gotten Astro B.yond PVR installed at home too, and check out what sort of programmes we have recorded.
Yes, mostly cooking shows. It’s brilliant, I can’t tell you how many times I missed out crucial part of cooking show just because they go over it a tad too fast. With the PVR’s record function this problem is a thing of a past. Of course PAUSE and REWIND function comes in mighty handy too.
I’ll be reviewing the PVR’s function soon too. In the mean time, happy cooking!
Yeay! top chef season 4! but there’s top chef season 6 on another channel tho … and season 6 is awesommmmme~
Aza: haha I got others too, just happened to take this screen shot 😛
Drool worthy! I love asparagus and always find ways to cook it. And how can I not notice that sambal. OMG! You have loads of patience peeling 15 shallots! Seriously 🙂
Kiran: hahah shallots aren’t too bad, u gotta work hard for good food 😉
That looks yummy! I usually cook mine lightly with just olive oil and salt. This might be something I will try when I go back to Malaysia.
Charlene: olive oil and salt is a bit too boring but a healthier choice no doubt.
I know! I’m too chicken to experiment cos they’re so expensive! 😛
Charlene: actually asparagus aren’t as expensive as they used to be, one bunch is less than RM 10 and that’s from supermarkets, wet market’s usually cheaper. 😀
Cool! It cost about USD4 per pound for me. I usually get it when they’re on sale for about $2. Hehe!
Charlene: that’s good deal!
What’s with this KY cooks series? 😀
Michelle: it’s called making the ROI for kitchen renovation. lol
Ah Asparagus, nice way of cooking it. Chinese will always just stir fried it with oyster sauce + garlic.
JD: yaa, but i don’t quite like oyster sauce in vege too often tho. 😀
I love the sambal asparagus, thanks for the recipe.
eddi88: you’re welcome. 😀