Sambal

 

Sambal is a chili sauce or paste, typically made from a mixture of a variety of chili peppers with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. Sambal is an Indonesian loan-word of Javanese and Sundanese origin (sambel). It originated from the culinary traditions of Indonesia, and is also an integral part of the cuisines of Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Brunei and Singapore. It has also spread through overseas Indonesian populations to the Netherlands and Suriname.

Various recipes of sambals usually are served as hot and spicy condiments for dishes, such as lalab (raw vegetables), ikan bakar (grilled fish), ikan goreng (fried fish), ayam goreng (fried chicken), ayam penyet (smashed chicken), iga penyet (ribs) and various soto soup. There are 212 variants of sambal in Indonesia, with most of them originated from Java.

 

 

What you need:

- two cups of oil

- 10-15 roughly chopped fresh red peppers (lombok) 

- 4 cloves of garlic

- half red onion or a few shallots

- handful of dried red peppers (to make it more spicy) and cut in half;

- 4 or 5 kemiri nuts

- handful of dried anchovies

- 2 lime leaves (from freezer)

- pinch of salt

- 1 tbps of sugar (cristal- or palm sugar)

 

To prepare it:

- heat the oil on medium heat and put in the red peppers, garlic and onion for two - three minutes;

- add the dried red peppers, kemiri nuts, anchovies, lime leaves and fry for another two minutes or until the onions and fresh red peppers are softened (don't burn the ingredients);

- take from the heat and put in a blender and make it in puree and - if necessary of if you desire - finish in a mortar;

- put the sambal back into the heated pan with the oil, add the salt and sugar and heat for a few minutes (at consistency you like the best):

- don't worry about the quantity of the oil. You will need it to cover the sambal in the put. It helps conserving the sambal;

Tip: My favorite is the dried, salted anchovies (teri nasi). But you can also use dried shrimps or shrimp paste (trasi) to add extra taste to the homemade sambal.