Mee kangkung belacan is one of the very popular street food almost every Medanese loves. It is basically a stir fry noodles with chili, shrimp paste (belacan), water spinach and some seafood.
The dish is spicy (but won’t burn or numb your tongue), then it has this wonderful flavor from shrimp paste, umami would be the elegant way to describe it, it’s saucy (but not soupy) and oh gosh…just give it a try will you?
The lady who originally started her business selling Mee Kangkung Belacan at our little home town in Indonesia, probably the pioneer of it, has tremendous success and this business is now inherited to her son and as far as I know, he is doing VERY WELL!!
I get this recipe from my great mama and it did fix my feeling of being homesick !!
MEE KANGKUNG BELACAN / STIR FRY NOODLES WITH WATER SPINACH (2 servings)
What you will need:
- 1 lb Chinese egg noodles or you can use spaghetti noodles (for 2 generous servings)
- 2 cup of loosely packed beansprouts
- 2 handful of water spinach leaves (kangkung)
- 6 jumbo shrimps (deveined and shelled)
- 6 thin slices of pig liver (optional, but I love it)
- 4 fish balls (sliced)
- 2 tomatoes (quartered)
- 3 tsp of belacan/ shrimp paste
- 4 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
- 2 duck eggs or chicken eggs
- 3 Tbsp of red chili paste – more if you want it spicier (use about 10-15 already soaked dried red chilis and few spoons of water and ground it up in food processor or you can always use readily bought red chili paste like sambal oelek for example)
- 1 Tbsp of sweet soy sauce/ kecap manis
- Dash of soy sauce
- 4 Tbsp of canola oil
Instructions:
- Preheat the wok and add in oil. Saute garlic until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add in prawns, fish ball and pig livers. Saute until half-cooked, then push to the side of the wok and crack in two eggs. Break the yolk a bit and leave them. Let the egg settle for a bit (for about 20-30 seconds) and then mix everything up in the wok
- Add sambal red chili, belacan and stir fry
- Add about ¼ cup of water and tomatoes, let it simmer for about 1 minute
- Add in water spinach, yellow noodles, sweet soy sauce and soy sauce. Mix well. Cover the wok with lid and let it simmer for 1 minute. The noodles has a bit of gravy on it (as shown in picture). Have a taste and add more soy sauce if needed. It should taste salty with little hint of sweetness from the sweet soy sauce. Then add in the beansprouts and stir a little bit and turn off the heat. I like the beansprouts to be still crunchy
- Ready to serve and clean the wok before cooking the next portion (if you are doubling this recipe)
Notes:
This dish tastes better when you prepare it one portion (maximum two portions) at a time and not cooking it in big batch
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