Masak - masak Melayu ~ Stir – fried okra with anchovies @ Bendi dengan ikan bilis

A friend of mine taught me this dish so allow me to recall a quirky part during the first time she demonstrated this recipe to me. We were in Sikuati at that time, preparing dinner. Due to the lack of proper utensils, she improvised the lesung @ stone pounder with a mineral water bottle filled full and used it to pound and grind the anchovies and onions to produce a more or less of the desired result. Next, to replace wok, we simply used rice – cooker. And lived, nothing exploded. (Of course, we were using Panasonic that time, so don’t try this unless you are very, very confident that your rice cooker can take it. I’m not liable for what happen to your rice cooker.)



Anyway, the ingredients are very cheap and cooking it is very simple, fuss – free. A good, easy recipe for beginner who likes kampong vege.


Ingredients:
1. 10 - 12 okra, chopped to 2 - 3 cm length
2. 1 onion
3. 5 cloves of shallot
4. 2 cloves of garlic
5. a handful of anchovy, or as much as you like
6. 1 chili, or more if you want, chopped
7. 1 tbs oil
8. pinch of salt

*Ingredient 2 – 6: pound flat.

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in the wok. Toss in the pounded ingredients and stir until fragrant.
2. Toss in the okra and stir a while until the colour changes slightly and they soften
3. Season with only little salt as the anchovy will supplement the taste, stir. Off the gas.


Serves 3 – 4.

Very easy, no? It takes maybe 15 minutes to prepare. And anchovy is one of the good, easily available and cheap food sources for pregnant moms to prevent anaemia. In Sabah I see okra everywhere in many shops so I suppose it’s one of the favourite vege here since they are pretty cheap.