Spicy Water Spinach (Kangkong) Salad a.k.a Plecing Kangkung

Plecing kangkung is the specialty dish from Lombok (the small island nearby Bali). Some recipes use palm/ coconut sugar, some don't. I'm a real Javanese and we like sweet food so much, so  I add small amount  of palm sugar in this recipe. When my beloved mom still alive, she likes to make the similar dish called 'Cemeding Kangkung'. I'm not sure where this name came from. I found that Plecing Kangkung, Cemeding Kangkung and Brambang Asem (that's the way Solonese called, in Semarang they call it with another name that I'm still trying to remember what it is- finally I recall it, yes, Semarangese call it Glandir) are similar but actually they are slightly different. The 'sambal' (spicy condiment) for Plecing Kangkung uses garlic and the acidity comes from lemon. While the 'sambal' for Cemeding Kangkung doesn't use garlic but the acidity comes from tamarind (the sambal for Cemeding Kangkung is the same with the one used for Rujak (spicy fruit salad)). Brambang asem (Javanese language) in English means shallot and tamarind. For this dish, the original recipe uses shallot and tamarind, without garlic. It also uses sweet potato's leaves instead of water spinach. But it has similar taste with Plecing Kangkung and Cemeding Kangkung.

Right now I'm going to share Plecing Kangkung's recipe:

Ingredients:

1 package of water spinach

For the 'sambal' (spicy condiment) to blend:

2 cloves of garlic

6 red Thai chilli peppers

1/2 tsp shrimp paste

1 medium sized tomato

2 tbs of palm sugar/ coconut sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbs lemon juice from squeezed lemon

Direction:

Boil the water spinach until tender, make sure it's not over cooked and the leaves still in a light green color. 

Boil or steam garlic, red Thai chili peppers and tomato until tender. When they're tender enough, blend it altogether with shrimp paste, palm sugar, salt and lemon juice.

Serve the water spinach over the plate and pour the spicy condiment (sambal) on top of it.

Serving 2 people