Most if not all Malaysian households would have belacan in their pantry/ fridge. Even my sister, who lives abroad, keeps this ingredient in stock whenever she manages to find it at the Asian supermarket. When she does, she uses it sparingly and only cooks with it when her husband is at work because it's an ingredient that announces itself to the world when you fry it up in the wok. Whenever my neighbour cooks something with belacan, the whole neighbourhood salivates.
Belacan, or shrimp paste, is traditionally made with krill, a shrimp-like crustacean. The krill is dried for a specific duration and salt is added. This krill-salt mixture is passed through a meat grinder so that it forms a paste, and then dried again. The process is repeated as many times as necessary before the fermentation process begins which turns the pink colour paste into a dark reddish brown. Finally, the paste is pressed into thin rectangular blocks or circular discs, and dried again in the sun before being wrapped with paper or plastic1. Indeed, there are many variations of belacan found in the supermarket here.
Just like durian, belacan has a unique smell. So unique that as a woman in France was making a Malaysian dish using belacan, French police showed up on her doorstep following a complaint from her neighbour. Apparently, the neighbours described the odd smell as possibly coming from a rotting body! Trust me though, it's pungent but not that bad!
I don't use belacan often in my cooking since I don't always cook Malaysian/ Asian dishes in which this ingredient would be a vital component, but I too always have it handy just in case the need to make sambal belacan (a chilli condiment containing belacan) comes over me.
No comments:
Post a Comment