We call them bubuk here…and when I mentioned it on Facebook yesterday, somebody asked, “What’s bubuk?” Well, they are those very tiny little shrimps that seem to be seasonal. At certain times in a year, they may be found in abundance in the sea off the beaches of places like Bintulu in Sarawak…and the bountiful harvest would enable to locals to make belacan (fermented prawn paste) and cincaluk (fermented shrimps). If I’m not mistaken, they are also found in the peninsula and they are called udang geragau there.
Other than the aforementioned uses, bubuk is also dried and sold at the market looking like this…
I do recall them being of a darker shade of red in the past but I guess people are more health-conscious now so they do not bother to dye them anymore. They can be used as a substitute for udang kering or hay bee (dried prawns) in one’s cooking – a poor man’s substitute, I would say as they are relatively a lot cheaper. I, for one, will use bubuk when cooking my kampung-style fried rice.
These were the ingredients that I used…
– some shallots and garlic, peeled and sliced, some chilies, sliced and a bit of ikan pusu/bilis (dried anchovies). In the past, I would chop the garlic till fine but of late, I prefer to use them sliced. Sometimes, when eating, I may bite into the fried garlic…and I actually love the taste very much.
So what I did was…I fried the shallots, garlic and anchovies in oil till golden brown before I added the bubuk – you may need a bit more oil as it may soak up the oil like when you make sambal udang kering…and after stirring everything together for a while, I put in the sliced chilies and the rice. After frying for a while, I added a bit of light soy sauce/fish sauce and msg before I broke two eggs into the wok and fried them together with everything else till they were cooked. Then it was ready to be served…
In the past, I would just throw in the bubuk after I had fried everything else…or maybe before I added the eggs but this time around, I decided to fry it in the oil first expecting it to taste a lot nicer but frankly, I could not really tell the difference…
Either way, the fried rice tasted great. Wink! Wink!
Perhaps you would like to give it a try?
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 