Fermented shrimp paste (belacan)

Pâte de crevette fermentée (belacan)

What it is

Belacan is made from Acetes, a shrimp barely a centimetre long, salted, left to break down in the sun and pressed into blocks that ferment for weeks — the smell is proteins being taken apart. A good block cuts like a firm cheese; one that crumbles was dried too fast and will give only salt.

In the kitchen

Toast it before it goes anywhere near a dish: a thin slice, two minutes a side in a dry pan, until the kitchen is unbearable and it snaps rather than bends. A pea-sized piece seasons a curry paste for four; untoasted and undosed it flattens everything else.

Goes with

Chili pepper Garlic Shallot Lime Lemongrass Tamarind paste

Same species

Saeujeot

Also used with

Red amaranth leaf Sambal oelek Torch ginger bud Yardlong bean Zedoary Water spinach

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