My Salad - A Twist Of Fusion

Bought a packet of Butterhead Lettuce yesterday, and, telling myself that I am going to have Salad for my lunch.  I have used up all my homemade Salad Dressings.  As usual, when I put on my thinking cap, I will start opening and closing my fridge doors, take a peek, give a thought and... then, my eyes caught the two rolls of leftover Lobak (Five-Spice Meat Rolls), and that very instant it reminds me of the Japanese Cucumbers which I bought yesterday together with the Butterhead Lettuce.  I told myself 'This is just PERFECT!'  Let me make today's Salad special, A Twist Of Fusion!

Few simple ingredients:

• Butterhead Lettuce
• Lobak (Five-Spice Meat Rolls) - fried with oil, drain and cut diagonally
• 1 Japanese Cucumber (sliced diagonally)
• Sambal Belacan/Shrimp Paste (I always have this homemade sambal belacan in my fridge) to obtain the recipe, click here

2 simple steps:

1. Arrange the Butterhead Lettuce, Lobak and Cucumber onto a serving dish.
2. Spoon sambal belacan or shrimp paste onto a small serving dish.
3. The Salad is ready to be served! Yum-Yum...

Stir-fried pineapple with sambal belacan

This dish is popularly cooked and served in most fast food stalls throughout Kuching City. I prefer using ripe pineapples so the dish won't be too sour.  Though it's a simple dish but when combined with the sambal belacan it becomes an appetizing dish which many can't resist!

Ingredients:
1/2 medium size pineapple 
water
Salt & sugar (to taste)
2 tbsp cooking oil

Sambal Belacan:
2 red chilies
2 bird's eyes chilies
2 shallots
3 pip garlic
1 tbsp of dried shrimps
1/2 tbsp of chopped belacan (shrimp paste)
2 tbsp cooking oil

Methods:

1. Cut off the hard skin of the pineapple, with a sharp knife slice off the eyes on the flesh and the hard core in the center, rub with salt, rinse and cut into thin slices suitable for stir-frying.
2. Wash and soak the dried shrimps till soft, drain and put aside for later use.
3. Peel shallots and garlic, cut into smaller pieces.
4. Rinse the chilies, cut open to remove seeds and cut into cubes.
5. In a blender put all the prepared sambal belacan ingredients into it with 2 tbsp cooking oil and blend to become paste and scoop into a bowl.
6. Heat up a clean wok using medium fire, put in 2 tbsp of cooking oil, then pour in the blended sambal and stir well.
7. When oil separates put in the sliced pineapple, stir till well combined and put in some water, continue to cook. More water must be added when the sauce is too dry.
8. Taste to get the correct seasoning as the shrimp paste might be salty, add salt if necessary and dash of sugar if the pineapple is sour or else omit it.
9. Once the pineapple is well cooked with the sambal belacan and the sauce is thicker, off the heat, dish and serve with hot rice!