When I put up my recipe for Stir-Fried Asparagus with Prawns, some of my favourite readers commented about their preference for Belacan Asparagus instead. Most, if not all, of these readers come from Malaysia / Singapore and belacan (prawn paste) is a hometown favourite. It is rather pungent (or can be offensive) in smell and you either like it or your don’t. However, I don’t really like the Belacan Asparagus sold in restaurants because I find that most of the time, they use far too much oil and thus render the dish rather unhealthy looking. Cooking for myself, however, is different as I could control the use of oil myself.

Recently, I saw an episode of Jamie Oliver’s and he taught a simple way of plucking the asparagus so that only the tender parts are used and the rests discarded for being too fibrous. All you need to do is to hold each end of the asparagus with your thumb and fingers and bend the middle part upwards. The stress of the bending will result in the asparagus breaking at a point which separates the tender part from the more fibrous part. Very easy but can waste quite a bit. So, having separated the tender parts, I go through the others and see if I could still salvage any other parts which are not so fibrous

This is my recipe for Belacan Asparagus

Ingredients

• 200 grammes of asparagus (choose tender parts as per technique above)
• 10 grammes or approximately 2 teaspoons of belacan
• 30 grammes of dried prawns (pre-soaked for 15 minutes)
• 5 cloves garlic
• 5 cloves shallots
• 3 to 5 pieces red chilli (remove seeds)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 4 tablespoons palm oil

Method

Pound or blend belacan, pre-soaked dried prawns, garlic, shallots and chilli till it forms a paste.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok on medium heat and saute belacan mix till aromatic / light brown. Add some oil if it starts to burn before becoming brown. Note that the belacan mix absorbs oil like tissue paper and therefore, you should try not to use too much oil or your asparagus will be found swimming in oil later.

Increase heat to high and add asparagus. Stir well and sprinkle warm water occasionally (you don’t have to use all the water above) to keep it moist and to let the dish cook in a little steam (but not soaking in water). Cook for about 2 minutes. No seasoning is required as the belacan mix is quite salty. You might want to sprinkle some sugar if you find it too salty.

Dish out and serve with steaming white rice.

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