Snake beans are from the long beans family. They have wrinkled and thicker texture compared with the normal long beans. They originated from Sabah and I love it for its crunchy texture. You can stir fry them with just garlic and sea salt and you can taste the natural sweetness of the bean. I stir fried them with dried shrimp paste ( belacan ) , chilli paste and dried shrimps and lots of garlic and gosh, it was one appetizing veggie dish and the crunchy texture makes it even more good :) I can eat this with just a bowl of piping hot rice...yummy!
Now looking at them , I know why they are called snake beans, they do resemble the snake , for their wrinkled texture looks like the patterns on the snakeskin ..of course the snake have smooth skin :p . Snake beans are thicker than the normal long beans. Mmmmm this is a simple stir fry and you can't hide the aroma of this dish from your neighbor , it will permeates the whole neighborhood because of the dried shrimp paste. :p My friend who married an Englishman , cannot have dried shrimp paste in the house for the hubby could not stand the smell of dried shrimp paste, he said it smells like dirty smelly socks...LOL! and he said we asians just love anything smelly .....kidding ...he was referring to durians and dried shrimp paste ! :p
Sabah snake beans ....I love this beans ..it has lots of nutrients :)
garlic,dried shrimp and dried shrimp paste makes this dish
so aromatically good !
Daddy loves the dried shrimps and he will help himself to all
those hidden dried shrimps amongst the beans :p
Y U M M Y !!!
Stir Fry Sabah Snake Beans With Dried Shrimps
ingredients:
400 gms snake beans - washed, drained and cut into 1" length
5 pips of garlic - crushed and chopped
3 tbsp of dried shrimps- soaked and crushed
1/2 thumb sized dried shrimp paste ( belacan )
1 tbsp of ground chilli paste ( chilli boh )
1/4 cup water
3 tbsp of grapeseed/ olive oil
Preparation :
Heat up oil in non stick wok, saute the garlic , dried shrimps , ground chilli paste and dried shrimp paste till aromatic, add in the cut beans and stir fry for 5 minutes. Add in 1/4 cup of water. Close with a wok cover for 8 minutes under high heat. Open the cover and continue to stir fry till the gravy thicken and just enough to coat the beans. Dish up and serve hot.
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I did not know that these beans are particular to Sabah. I lived in sabah for 16 years because my hubby is from there and my MIL cooked this just the way u did. I cooked it too but never knew they were special to sabah. They are sweet and I love them too. :))imagine I came all the way back home to discover that these beans are from sabah! LOL
ReplyDeleteYeah, I always mistakenly thought of them as long beans.
ReplyDeleteUntil being told so.
I had them stir fried with pork and sambal belacan, at a restaurant in old town.
I don't think we'll be able to find these here in the US but we do have long beans. The ones here are skinny and dark green in color. I buy them whenever I see them. Your dish looks very appetizing.
ReplyDeleteOh I didn't know that this is called snake beans from Sabah. But it looks delicious and with dried shrimp - it is yummylicious!
ReplyDeleteooo..it's called snake bean ah.
ReplyDeleteYa..my mom used to fried this with shrimp sambal . But the variant she use is smaller size ones
I have not eaten snake beans for a very long time...Your post brings back memories. Used to eat them often as kid, in Germany I can hardly have them.
ReplyDeleteI just had this at the restaurant cooked with minced meat, so good with rice!
ReplyDeleteIs difficult to find this type of kacang panjang here. All we get are those very thin kind. I like this type of beans better and my mom used to cook it with fermented bean paste.
ReplyDeleteyes, eat while it is hot and crunchy.. (song hau) the thick ones are nicer.. yes!
ReplyDeleteZurin....:) I did not know until the veggie seller told me it is from Sabah :) love it cooked this way...appetizing and the crunch mmmm delish ! I preferred this to those kacang panjang :p
ReplyDeleteJames....this is a versatile beans. You can cook it in any style and it will still turned out great :) Old town...oh which restaurant ?
Biren....thanks :) those dark greens ones are crunchy too but this it slightly different in texture though. Thick and crunchy.
Mysimplefood....haha I agree with you..it is absolutely yummy :)
Kathy...how come they don't sell it in KL ? This is better than the long beans :)
Cooking Gallery...this beans cant keep long so I think that is the reason why they never export out to other countries :)
Ann...oh you do get this in UK ? yup it is a versatile beans..you can cook in any style and yet it taste good :)
Gertrude....this snakebeans taste lots better than the normal kacang panjang. I hardly buy those kacang panjang after eating this. I love them for their crunch and the thick texture :)
Claire...haha yup just this one dish is enuf for me :p
I love this type the best! All wrinkled and curly... Never knew they're called Sabah long beans. Also cook it wth sambal usually... Nice!
ReplyDelete