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Sambal Kangkong
Sambal kangkong (马来风光) is a popular zi-char dish in Singapore. This recipe is a result of many attempts to replicate the taste of zichar-style sambal kangkong at home. After achieving this perfect taste (for my family), I have been cooking sambal veggies about twice a week! The best part of cooking kangkong (also known as water spinach or morning glory) at home is that it is so much cheaper, with a lot more veg on the plate.
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Normally, my family is not too fond of the hollow stems of kangkong (also known as water spinach or morning glory). So I always look for the slimmer variety of kangkong with thinner stems (pictured above) which are available from time to time.
When cooked with the slimmer variety, all of the kangkong (stems and leaves) is soft and tender.
And this is one small short-cut I used for this recipe: instant sambal belacan paste. Additional ingredients (dried shrimps & seasonings) are still required to make the taste good, but this short-cut is a huge time saver for me. If you have more time, you can use homemade sambal belacan to replace the instant sauce.
First posted on Nov 2010, updated recipe on Jul 2019.
I heard that the Pulau Pinang Belacan is one of the best! I wish I can lay my hands on some! Beautiful pictures!
Oh I didn’t know it is famous … I just grabbed it randomly from the supermarket shelves… guess I was lucky hehe ;)
Sambal kang kong is my favorite! I fry it with lotsa small shrimps! (but I’m always too lazy to make my own belachan. I always buy those ready made bottles and then further process it! Haha)
Actually it’s a great idea too … I saw your sambal kangkong before it looks so good!
Love kangkung terasi belachan :) I can eat this lots with rice :)
My hb’s all times favourite. I always toast the belacan first before pounding it with other ingredients, it stinks when toasting but the finish product tastes really good. Your sambal kangkung looks healthy cos those selling outside are very oily.
I toasted the belacan first too… forgot to mention it. Stink up the whole kitchen but worth doing so! :)
My hubby adores this but I never really managed to get the cooking right. He always complains that the stalks are still a little *raw* while the leaves are wilted and that the flavours are not infused.
Any suggestions?
Like I mentioned in step 1, if you’re cooking both stalks and leaves, you can stir fry the stalks first for a few minutes, before adding the leaves as they cook much faster. See if this works.
This dish must smells good and delicious :) I like this dish a lot!
this is such a classic belacan dish! love this hehe
Great photos….This is one of the earliest dishes I learnt to cook several years ago…you can also use ‘belacan granules’ if u don’t wanna buy the entire piece:D
haven’t seen these granules here before, would love to try if I can get my hands on them :)
Yummy! One of my favorite veggie dish!
You are making my favourite dish!! :)