Look who I found!

http://joanchew_1911.blogspot.com/

Joan Chew documents her life and family in this colorful, happy, enticing blog that is full of lucious photographs of foods, places and people.

Looking at and reading through her blog this morning has made me long for HMart! I always think I want to try new veggies, seasonings and mixtures of flavors. I will definitely use her blog to work some new magic in my kitchen.

The dish above is kangkung with belacan.

Thanks Ms. Chew. I will be watching.

I shrink away from recipes with more tha 5 ingredients and more than 5 steps. I tried to find and short and sweet recipe for kangkung with belacan and I think I found it over at mysimplefood.com http://www.mysimplefood.com/2008/10/blog-post_25.html

KangKung Belacan

"This is my favourite vegetable since young. KangKung or KangKong is also known as Water Spinach or Water Convolvulus in the Western world. Water convolvulus is a member of the Convolvulaceae (morningglory) family. Ah ha....Infact in Malaysia I usually called it "morning glory" when ordering in a bit upscale Chinese restaurants (the ones where the waiters don't speak Chinese). I remember my brother used to laughed at me for calling it "morning glory". His rationale, how can a cheap vegetable like KangKung have such a beautiful name. :)Yup I always remember that this is a cheap vegetable as told by my grandma. This is because it can grow very easily in swamp areas as it grows fast when in contact with moist soil or water. Therefore to the older folks, this is a "longkang" (drain) vegetable meaning you can easily see it growing beside the drains."

"Another myth that they used to scare me with is that if I ate too much KangKung, I will get arthritis on my legs. It is because the vegetable is a water plant and the stems are soaked in water all the time. It will also transfer to human legs causing arthritis. Any truth in this myth? I don't know but trust me, after eating too much KangKung when young, I did feel pain in my legs. Let me know if this is a fact or just a myth. :)

Other names. Kankon (Japanese); ung choi (Cantonese Chinese); toongsin tsai (Mandarin Chinese); ong choy, ungtsai, tung choy (China); kang kong (Filipino, Malaysian); kang kung, rau muong (Vietnamese); pak bung (Thai).

How to prepare? This dish can be easily stir-fried plain with garlic but it is most famous as KangKung Sambal Belacan whereby you use dried chilli prawn paste. I cook variations of this vegetable using actual "belacan" or just ready made sambal belacan or just plain with garlic."

Simple Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil

1 red chilli,

500g kangkun

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

Seasoning -

2 tbsp belacan sambal (readily available in canned bottles at Chinese Supermarkets)

1 tsp light soy sauce

1 tsp sugar and salt

Simple Steps -

1. Heat up oil, sautè garlic until fragrant. Add in sambal belacan and stir-fry until aromatic.

2. Add in red chillis, kangkung and stir-fry at high heat until well mixed. Dish up.

I think I will add the seasonings with the sambal belacan.....we will see.

This dish looks like of dou miao, or snow pea tips. If is half as good as that then it will be a hit. And can I say how much I love the more amateur-ish food sites than the more slick and sexy ones. They seem so much more soulful and real to me. Keep posting MySimpleFood!!