Black Bean KangKong

Kangkong is a common vegetable in Southeast Asian dishes. In Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, the leaves are usually stir-fried with chili pepper, garlic, ginger and dried shrimp paste (belacan) and other spices.

 

This vegetable is known in English as Water spinach, River spinach, Water morning glory or by the more ambiguous names "Chinese spinach", "Swamp cabbage" and "Kangkong".

 

It contain high moisture hence the stir-fry dish have to be eaten immediately upon served. If not, Kangkong will release more juice and your stir-fry dish became soupy XD

Black Bean KangKong

Prep time: 20mins

Cook time: 15mins

Serves: 2-3 pax

 

Ingredients:

250gm KangKong

2 shallots (julienne)

Oil to stir fry

To grind:

4 shallots

2 cloves garlic

1tbsp ground dried shrimps (hebi)

Some green and red chillies (depends on how spicy you want it to be)

Optional: Few red birds eye chili (chili padi), you may use green if you want to, but I preferred red for colour contrast

2tbsp Fermented Black Bean

Method:

 

Note: Kangkong need to be washed thoroughly. The stems of the vegetable are hollow hence made a great breeding place for parasites. When eaten raw or not well cleaned, it may transmit Fasciolopsis Buski, an intestinal fluke parasite, to human. 

1) To wash, prepare 2 litre of water, add 4tbsp of salt. Cut and trim the vegetables and soaked in the salt water for 5mins. Repeat this twice for every batch of Kangkong.

2) Grind 4 shallots, garlic, dried shrimps, all the chillies and black bean. I made use of the food processor as I do not want to end up having a bowl of diluted paste. I would prefer to have some textures from the shallots and the black beans.

 

Note: Do read the ingredients of the bottled black beans. I bought mine that came with ginger, salt and sugar.

3) Heat up the wok. Add oil and on medium flame, stir fry the julienne shallots till caramelized. Add in the paste. Stir constantly, ensure that you dont burn it. 

 

4) Once you saw that the oil became separated from the paste, you can gauge that the spices are well-cooked. At this stage, you may taste the cooked paste before adding any salt as the bottled black beans came with it. You may then add the well-cleaned KangKong. 

5) You may cover the wok with the lid for about 5mins on low flame to allow the kangkong to cook evenly. This also helps to ensure that the spices don't get burnt. By the way, KangKong will release its own juice so don't add water.

 

6) Remove the lid and stir fry the KangKong for another 3mins. Do not over fried the KangKong as its best enjoyed with some crunchiness . Serves hot. :D Enjoy!

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