Hae Bee Hiam - Dry Sambal Prawn

This is the first time I am trying this recipe. My hubby loves Hae Bee Hiam, so today I've decided to surprise him by cooking this. It was difficult to surprise him as the whole house was fused with it's aroma. Hae Bee Hiam is great with plain rice, nasi lemak, porridge, bread. If you like to make soft buns, this will be great as a bun filling. You can cook a batch of this and keep it in the fridge whenever you need it. It keeps well in the refrigerator. But of course, don't keep it for too long, as all homecooked food are best eaten fresh. But keeping this for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator is ok.

The ingredients for this recipe is very simple, no difficult to find ingredients. These are ingredients that you should have in your kitchen any time of the day. Dried prawns, shallots, some limes and red chillies. The tedious work is in the peeling of the many shallots and slicing them up. It may tear up your eyes a bit, if you are worried, you can place the shallots in the refrigerator for a few minutes before peeling and slicing them. But I need not do that as I wear spectacles, so the spicy 'vapour' can hardly reach my eyes. Pick out impurities from the dried prawns and wash them 3 times to really wash away all the dirt. Drain well and then use a powerful grinder machine and grind the dried prawns finely. You may have to do it in a few batches to get everything finely ground up. Grind up the red chillies too. I removed the seeds for this recipe, but if you prefer it more spicy you can leave them intact.

 Pic 1

stir-fry the sliced shallots with 4tbsp oil

 Pic 2

be careful not to burn the shallots

 Pic 3

stir-fry till the onions are nicely browned

 Pic 4

chilli oil

 Pic 5

stir-fry the dried prawns till toasty light & fluffy



Hae Bee Hiam - Dry Sambal Prawn

Ingredients:

300g dried prawns (rinse 3 times, shake off excess water and grind finely)

1tbsp lime juice

300g shallots (weight is after peeling, sliced up)

2tbsp sugar

Chilli oil:

6 red chillies (grind finely)

4tbsp oil

Method:

1. Add lime juice to ground dried prawns. Set aside.
2. Heat wok and add oil. Use medium low heat and stir-fry the sliced shallots (see pic 1). Stir every now and then to prevent it burning. It may seem like the oil is too little, do not add more oil. The onions will reduce down as it cooks (see pic 2). This prcoess can take about 10-15 mins depending on your heat flame. It does not need to be crispy, it just needs to be nicely browned (see pic 3).
3. When shallots are browned, drain well the oil and set aside.
4. Using the same oil that is still in the wok, stir-fry the ground red chillies. Once the oil becomes red in color, turn off the heat. Let it cool for a few minutes. This will make the oil ooze out from the chillies. Drain the red chilli pulp, press out the oil well. Discard the pulp.
5. Reheat the chilli oil in the wok over a medium low heat. Add in the dried prawns and stir-fry till it's light and toasty. This will also take about 10-15 mins. do not leave this unattended as it can burn easily. You know it's done when it feels light as you fry with the wok ladle. It will also be dry and crisp.
6. Turn off the heat and add in the fried shallots. Mix well using a hand balloon whisk. Using this will enable the fried shallots to incorporate well into the toasty dried prawns.
7. Cool completely and store in airtight container. Best kept in the refrigerator.