Spicy Dried Shrimps

Spicy dried shrimps or 'Hae Bee Hiam' as it is known in Hokkien, a Chinese dialect, is a versatile dish that can be eaten with rice or used as a spread or filling in sandwiches.

At our recent bloggers' meet, I made some sandwiches with it.

My recipe is easy to follow though one must be prepared to stand by the stove for at least half an hour, depending on the preparation or the amount to be cooked. I would usually cook a substantial amount and store it in the freezer to be used at whim.

The Recipe:

A

300g dried shrimps (Be sure to buy the better quality that doesn't have a very strong smell)

B

12 shallots

3 cloves garlic

4 fresh red chillies

5 dried chillies, pre-soaked

4 chilli padi (optional)

1 pce 4-cm lemon grass, thinly sliced

8 kaffir lime leaves

oil

sugar to taste

How It Is Done:

1. Be sure to pick out all foreign objects like tiny stones, crab claw bits etc from the pile of dried shrimps. Rinse the shrimps twice then soak in enough water for half and hour or more. Drain and grind to the fineness or coarseness preferred. (Try not to add water when grinding as this will make the ground shrimps too wet and it will take a longer time to cook.) Set aside.

2. Grind all the ingredients in B.

3. Heat some oil (I used about 100ml) and put in the shrimp, ground ingredients and kaffir lime leaves and mix it well. Stir mixture over medium heat until it starts to dry out. Add sugar to taste. Salt is not required as the dried shrimp is quite salty itself.

You can either continue to cook till it dries out to 'floss' condition (which is quite dry) or if you prefer the moist kind, just cook for about 30 to 45 minutes.

I would recommend using a non-stick wok or pan.

This is quite moist because I wanted it to be easily spread on bread.

The kaffir lime leaves lent a very nice flavour to the shrimp.

These were the sandwich rolls made for the bloggers' meet.

I used soft bread slices, with edges removed. Next I spread a layer of shrimp and added some thinly sliced cucumber strips and rolled it tightly like a spring roll. I then used a piece of plastic to wrap the roll to keep the shape. To serve, remove the wrap and cut it into two. Enjoy!