Friday, June 13, 2008

Spicy Watercress in Shrimp Paste


Why did I choose watercress? Look at them! They are oh so cuteee! That's before I cooked them and transform them into a pile of.......(feel free to fill in the blank), and the picture I took above and below didn't do them justice ^_^

So they were superficially selected, purely based on how they look. Yeah, I am shallow. Big deal. I figured, well, they are vegetables, and they are so green, there are bound to be lots of goodness in them.

I dug a little deeper and I was right. There are so many good things found in watercress for each and every part of our body. Before I ruined them by stir frying in high heat and added lots of belacan (shrimp paste) *grin* ....but what the heck...it tasted fun-bloody-tastic and I hope there was still some badly needed goodness left in them for me

Spicy Watercress in Shrimp Paste (Belacan)

Recipe
- half Chinese pound watercress, wash and chop into 2-3 parts length-wise
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 small red chilli, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp shrimp paste
- olive oil
- hot water
- pepper and sugar

Saute garlic, shallot and chilli in hot olive oil, add watercress, add shrimp paste, pepper, sugar, add hot water if you want it with a bit of sauce

Submitting this for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Astrid from Paulchen's Food Blog?!

So, I guess it's ok to be shallow and superficial sometimes (applicable to vegetable selection, do not apply the same principals when choosing friends) LOL

28 comments:

Susan @ SGCC said...

Aah! I finally have an easy recipe to try using the shrimp paste I bought a while ago. It looks delicious. I love watercress, but never thought to use it in a stir fry.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I love watercress! I am just looking for an easy stir fry recipe for watercress and this one looks yummy! Can't wait to try it!
- Ning of Heart and Hearth

Jagungmanis said...

Sambel trasi, Rit?
:D

Anonymous said...

aku belum pernah makan iki....bahasa indonya apa sih rit *lemot.com* :P...

Salt N Turmeric said...

watercrest belacan or kangkung belacan or kailan belacan. they are all sinfully good stinky food! lol.

Caleb said...

hmmmm shrimp paste....I'm ignorant to say I've never heard of the stuff. Interesting.....

Beachlover said...

oh!! My favourite food!!sambal belacan!!.Yes,I uuse to cook like you but only choose the young watercress!

Lore said...

If my hubby sees this he's going to insist that I make it because he loves anything spicy.
I think watercress rocks so this is also right up my alley :)

Lia said...

seger pengen juga bikin ah

Little Corner of Mine said...

Oh yummy! I love this and I have no idea watercress can be cooked in this way. I only used it to boil soup. Thanks for the idea.

BTW, need you to spread the news to help with breast cancer donation, come take a look at my blog. Thanks ya!

Chef Jeena said...

I love watercress what a fabulous way to cook it, yummy! :-)

Jagungmanis said...

nang ngendi ae Rit, sibuk yo?
tuku soto Bangkong yuks...

Anonymous said...

Rit, watercress itu apa ya?

Unknown said...

hi susan, ning, lore, lia: try try try ^_^

hi elsye and sefa...hmm aku ga ngerti juga bahasa indone apa ya...iki aku asal tuku neng pasar...trus nyari2 nama englishnya juga sampe puyenggggg yenggg hahaha

dit, iyo sambel trasi haha

hi caleb, look it up...it's there in wikipedia, but bobby chin from discovery travel & living said "this is as close to a shrimp shit, as you'll ever gonna get" or something haha

s&t, it stinks..i love it! lol

beachlover, i loveeee any veggie in belacan hehe

hi ching, i'll check it out ;)

Mama Mia said...

im glad im not the only one that thinks watercress is cuuute hehe. nice recipe

Anonymous said...

Did you buy that shrimp paste in that small fishing village on Lantau's island?? I still have a jar in my fridge. Yum,, heavenly stinky. I love it! :-)

Anonymous said...

Giving it a shot... this watercress seems like what my mom normally calls as "selada air" in Bahasa Indonesia.

daphne said...

healthy and spicy-nicely done!

Elle said...

Oh, this look fantastic! I have never cooked with watercress, but this is a good idea!

Dwiana P said...

Love watercress too. Specially if you eat it with gado2 dressing. mmm asyik Rit. krn disini jarang kangkung gw akhirnya makan watercress lebih sering deh.

food makes me happy said...

Well done there!
I think any vegetables with shrimp paste are wonderful,
Especialy Asian vegetables,
Mmmm I'm craving for it now,
You know any good brands for shrimp paste?

Unknown said...

Hi Cindy,
try this one:
http://www.asiansupermarket365.com/Cheong_Kim_Chuan_Belacan_225g_p/s0023.htm

^_^

hi zen chef, whoaaa...did you get salted fish from cheung chau island too? you're good at sniffing around for good local stuff eh? impressive!

lina...yeah!!! aren't they just so adorable?

A.G said...

wah kyk kangkung terasi hehe... penasaran kr watercress... eh nek kene onok pora ya :)

Kalyn Denny said...

Sounds interesting and tasty. I don't think I've had cooked watercress.

Anonymous said...

I can already smell what this dish would be like. Shrimp paste is really good stuff :)

Happee Monkee said...

OMG! It's my favourite! It's kangkung! I love it to bits. Thank you for the recipe. You don't know how much I'm so grateful for this.

eatingclubvancouver_js said...

I've been racking my brains how to incorporate watercress into my diet. Thanks for this recipe.

I don't think I've had watercress sauteed before. Usually we have it in soup, but with the hot weather, it's not really time for soup.

FranMag said...

My husband loves watercress, I'll have to try this. Do you think Filipino bagoong will work for the shrimp paste?