Recently i whipped up a Malay dish called sambal udang, which means prawns in chili based sauce. I decided to try and cook something close to my roots instead of always whipping up something that isn’t Asian. So I started to YouTube simple Malay dishes that I can effortlessly whip up within half an hour. Norman Musa’s videos came out on the search list a lot and I decided to watch his videos. I definitely enjoyed them! He makes simplified versions of the original Malay dishes for the sake of the western viewers that might find it very difficult to execute at home.
I really liked his tutorials and recipes and I found out that he is a Malaysian chef based in Manchester, United Kingdom. Norman is also the creator, co-owner and Executive Chef of Ning restaurants. The sambal udang recipe that I will be sharing with you is from his book “Malaysian food’ (i call it the Malaysian food bible). However I do have a slightly more convinient variation for the blended ingredients. And I know I’m supposed to be on this whole healthy diet thingy, this dish does not require a lot of fat. Just enough to fry your sauce base.
SAMBAL UDANG
Serves two
Ingredients
16 tiger or king prawns, peeled and deveined
100ml cooking oil
4 tablespoons blended onion
1 tablespoon blended garlic
1 tablespoon blended ginger
125ml dried chilli paste
100ml tamarind juice
150ml water
1 teaspoon shrimp paste
4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 carrot, peeled and cut into julienne strips
8 kaffir lime leaves
Method
1. Heat up a wok or saucepan and add in the cooking oil.
2. Add the blended onion, garlic and ginger. Cook until fragrant.
3. Next, add the kaffir lime leaves and cook for another two minutes.
4. Stir in the chilli paste, tamarind juice, sugar, salt, shrimp paste and only half of the water. Stir the ingredients well and make sure they are blended completely.
5. Simmer on a low heat until the oil separates. This will give time for the chilli to be cooked properly. The gravy will thicken at this stage.
6. Turn the heat back up and add in prawns, carrots and the remaining water. Cook until the prawns turn pink. The dish is best served with jasmine rice.
MY VARIATION
Everything is pretty much the same, just that I estimate the blended ingredients and blend them all at once.
1 small red onion (cut in to chunks)
2-3 cloves of garlic
thumb-sized ginger
Add a little water or oil and blend it in the food processor or the blender.
Just in case you’re wondering what dried chili paste is, it’s just dried chilies blended in to a paste with a little bit of water.
Tamarind juice can be replaced with lime or lemon if you can’t find it in the stores.
FINALLY, if you’re living in Manchester and you know of his restaurant, do check it out for me and tell me what the food is like. I’d loveeeeee to hear about it! Here is Mr. Norman’s website: normanmusa.com
That’s all for today!
thenavycatandfood 