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Not too long ago, a couple of bloggers and their partners (all 18 of us) turned up at Penny’s house to celebrate Malaysia Fest. We weren’t quite sure what to bring at first, as Penny kindly offered to cook up a storm with her Mister. She did know that we were turning up!

However, knowing a few dishes would be aptly missed if I didn’t bring them, I decided that I would make Sambal Petai Prawns. Petai is also known as stinkbean Β or bitter bean and resembles broad beans. However, knowing that not everyone would be a fan of the petai, I made sambal prawns without the petai as well πŸ˜› (they really were missing out!)

Remember my basic Rempah recipe? Well with a few spoonfuls of that, heated in the oil, I was good to go!

Ingredients
3-4 tablespoons of home-made spice pasteΒ (rempah) with belachan

300 grams medium Prawns, shelled and deveined
50 gram Tamarind pulp, mixed withΒ 125 ml water and strained (keep strained juice and discard pulp)
100 grams of Petai/ Stink Bean (I used the canned petai for this recipe in place of fresh ones)
1 teaspoon of Brown Sugar
Salt to taste

Method
Heat about 5 tablespoons of oil in a wok. Saute the spice paste (rempah) until fragrant.

Add in the prawns and tamarind juice and bring to a boil.

Add in the petai and season with sugar and salt.

Stir-fry until the prawns are cooked and the gravy thickens.

Turn the heat off.

Plate the dish up and serve with rice.

Petai is definitely a bean which is best known for its smell. It is not called stink bean for nothing. Eating it is definitely an acquired taste as it has quite a pervasive note to its scent.

Paired with sambal, the chilli helps maskΒ the scent of the petai adding almost a fragrant note to this piquant bean.

It did take several days for the air to clear in my house, as both the sambal and the beans added a whole new layer of fragrance to my humble abode (much to the Boy’s annoyance).

So tell me my lovelies, do you have similar types of intrusive scented food in your cultures?