Ingredient: Shrimp paste
Category: Seafood
Season: All
Shrimp paste or shrimp sauce, is a common ingredient used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisine.
It is known as: terasi (also spelled trassi, terasie) in Indonesian, Ngapi in Burmese kapi in Thai,
Khmer and Lao language, belacan (also spelled belachan, blachang, balachong) in Malay, mắm tôm in Vietnamese, bagoong alamang (also known as bagoong aramang) in Filipino and Hom ha/Hay koh in Chinese.
It is made from fermented ground shrimp, sun dried and then cut into fist-sized rectangular blocks.
It is not designed, nor customarily used for immediate consumption and has to be fully cooked prior to consumption since it is raw.
To many Westerners unfamiliar with this condiment, the smell can be extremely repulsive; however, it is an essential ingredient in many curries and sauces.
Shrimp paste can be found in most meals in: Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.
It is often an ingredient in dipping sauce for fish or vegetables.
Once opened, you need to store it in the fridge with a tight lid on and place it in a polythene bag, as it has quite a strong aroma. But that said, it helps to give a wonderful authentic flavour to Asian recipes.
Varieties
Shrimp pastes vary in appearance , from pale liquid sauces to solid chocolate-colored blocks.
Shrimp paste produced in Hong Kong and Vietnam is typically a light pinkish gray while the type used for Lao cuisine, Khmer Cuisine and Thai cooking is darker brown.
While all shrimp paste has a notoriously pungent aroma , that of higher grades is generally milder.
Shrimp paste is used differently in different Asian cultures and can vary in smell, texture and saltiness.
Therefore, the correct shrimp paste should be chosen for the food being prepared .
Belacan, a Malay variety of shrimp paste , is prepared from fresh tiny shrimp of a species known as geragau in Malay.
These are mashed into a paste and buried for several months. The fermented shrimp are then dug up, fried and hard-pressed into cakes.
Belacan is used as an ingredient in many dishes , or eaten on its own with rice.
A common preparation is sambal belacan , made by mixing belacan with chilli peppers, minced garlic, shallot paste and sugar and then fried.
The aroma from the frying mixture can be unapalatable to Westerners who have not become accustomed to it, but is an absolute delight to the Asian connoisseur.
Terasi
Terasi, an Indonesian variant of dried shrimp paste , is usually purchased in dark blocks, but is also sometimes sold ground.
The colour and aroma of terasi is varied , it depends on the village that produced it.
The colour ranges from soft purple-reddish hue to darkish brown .
In Cirebon, a coastal city in West Java famous for fine quality terasi producer, terasi is made from tiny shrimp called "rebon", the very origin of the city's name.
In Sidoarjo, East Java, terasi is made from the mixture of ingredients such as fish, small shrimp, and vegetables .
Terasi is an important ingredient in Sambal .
Terasi, is also in many other Indonesian dishes , such as sayur asam (fresh sour vegetable soup), lotek (also called gado-gado, Indonesian style salad in peanut sauce), karedok (similar to lotek, but the vegetables are served raw), and rujak (Indonesian style hot and spicy fruit salad).
Bagoong Alamang
Bagoong Alamang is Filipino a shrimp paste, made from minute shrimp or krill (alamang), and is commonly eaten as a topping on green mangoes or used as a major cooking ingredient.
Bagoong paste varies in appearance , flavour, and spiciness depending on the type.
Pink and salty bagoong alamang is marketed as "fresh", and is essentially the shrimp-salt mixture left to marinate a few days.
This bagoong is rarely used in this form, save as a topping for unripe mangoes .
The paste can be sauteed with various condiments , and its flavour can range from salty to spicy-sweet.
The colour of the sauce will also vary with the cooking time and the ingredients used in the sauteeing.
Unlike in other parts of Southeast Asia , where the shrimp are fermented beyond recognition or ground to a smooth consistency, the shrimp in bagoong alamang are readily identifiable, and the sauce itself has a chunky to almost semi-solid consistency.
A small amount of cooked or sauteed bagoong is served on the side of a popular dish called "Kare-kare" , an oxtail stew made with peanuts.
It is also used as the key flavouring ingredient of a sauteed pork dish, known as Binagoongan (lit. "that to which bagoong is applied")
The word bagoong , however, is also connoted with the bonnet mouth and anchovy fish version, bagoong terong.
Hom ha
This Chinese shrimp paste is popular in south eastern China .
This shrimp paste is lighter in colour than many southeast Asian varieties and is often used in Pork and vegetable stir-fries.
The shrimp paste industry has historically been important in the Hong Kong region
Industry
Shrimp paste continues to be made by fishing families in coastal villages . They sell it to vendors, middlemen or distributors who package it for resale to consumers.
Shrimp paste is often known for the region it comes from , since production techniques and quality vary from village to village.
Some coastal regions in Indonesia such as Bagan Siapi-api in North Sumatra, Indramayu and Cirebon in West Java, and Sidoarjo in East Java, as well as villages such as Pulau Betong in Malaysia or Ma Wan island in Hong Kong, Lingayen Gulf, Pangasinan Philippines are well known for producing very fine quality shrimp paste
Availability
Shrimp paste can be found in nations outside Southeast Asia , in markets catering to Asian customers.
In Europe , it can simply be bought in the supermarket.
In the United States , brands of Thai shrimp paste (such as Pantainorasingh and Tra Chang) can be found. Shrimp pastes from other countries are also available in Asian supermarkets and through mail order. |