Stir Fried Water Spinach with Shrimp Paste (Kangkung Goreng Belacan)

My favourite vegetable!  Water spinach!  Stir Fried with Shrimp Paste!  Easy and yummy!  Too yummy that Sayf attempted eating it even though just a tiny bit.  For a  three  and a half year old to want to eat and swallow green vegetables no matter how little is quite an accomplishment. This has got to be real good.  A good friend of mine requested that I posted this recipe.  Here you go, Shah!

Ingredients:

(This serves about 5 people.  Water Spinach may look a lot before you cook them, but once they are cooked, they become much lesser in quantity).

2 ties of water spinach  - pluck the leaves from stem. Rinse clean and drain. Cut off the ends of the stems. Then, cut them into even sized lengths - roughly about 3 cm.
1 shallot - finely sliced
3 garlics - chopped
1 fresh red chilly - sliced and pounded to crush - add more if you like it more spicy or substitute with a few stalks of red bird's eye chillies!
A pinch of shrimp paste about the size of your thumb - I bought the readily packed circle shaped paste from a local supermarket
1/2 of ikan bilis cube (Knorr brand) - I ran out of these so I omitted
1 teaspoon sugar (or Ajinamoto if you prefer)
salt to taste

Method:

1.  Heat oil in pan and saute the sliced shallots and chopped garlics.  Saute for about half a minute.

2.  Add in the pounded red chillies.  Saute for about about another half a minute.

3.  Add in the shrimp paste and the ikan bilis cube.  Press on them to crush and saute for about a minute. 

4.  Add in the sugar (or Ajinamoto if you prefer). 

5.  Add in the water spinach. It may look a bit bulky for your pan but just keep folding them in from the sides to the centre. 

6.  Gradually, your spinach will look lesser!  Continue to stir fry.  

7. You will later notice that the spinach would release some water at the base of the pan.  Take a teaspoon and do a taste check to see if you need to add salt to your taste.  Off fire and serve.

Enjoy!  Happy Kitchen-ing!!