SAMBAL

Sambal is a multi-purpose food trademark in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore . Sambal refers to a kind of ready-to-eat chilli paste using variety of spices like the basic shallots / onions, garlic and ginger. The paste must have some mixture of spicy hot, sour, salty and a little sweetness. Sambal can be a substitute for fresh chillies.It is usually served as an accompaniment to rice and curried dishes, either as a condiment or as a side dishes. There are many varieties of sambal in Malaysia as sambal belacan , sambal daging or sambal tempoyak. Sambal can be used with a a numerous kinds of food. The chili sauce is often used with seafood such as prawn, fish or cuttlefish as well as poultry like chicken. This condiment works very well with all kinds of vegetables for example, aubergine or petai. Thus, not every sambal is made the same way, even within a region. Some places might use a fermented shrimp paste, tamarind concentrate or crushed fried peanuts.

In Malaysia when one eats out for lunch or dinner at a typical Malay restaurant, sambal is always served in a huge bowl on the table. We will tuck in, get sweaty and grit our teeth in pain because of the fiery chillies. The spicy chillies in sambal also contains health benefits too. Chillies may be able to lower the bad cholesterol in our blood stream. In addition, it can increase the production of endorphins. Spicy chillies are also thought to aid in digestion.

I have been craving for a nice sambal since yesterday night. I even had a dreams of eating sambal with my dad. So, the first thing I did after woke up on a drooling wet pillow, is sambal. I usually will make a whole container and keep the extra portion for craving use.

Cal's Fried Chicken with Sambal, Ikan Billis (Anchovies) and Telur Mata Kerbau (Sunny Shine Up Egg):-

Dry Shrimps ("swim" all the way from Malaysia)

Ground Dry Chilli Flakes

Ingredients are very simple. Get 4 slightly chopped red onions (it is suppose to be shallots but I cant go out to get any due to the stupid rain), 2 garlic cloves, ginger (small piece will do), ground dry chillies flakes (ground chillies is an important herbs in my kitchen) handful of dry shrimps, 4 tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of salt and a dash of lime juice with the grated lime skin.

Blending

The Paste

Sauté

Preparations:-

• Blend all the ingredients into paste (Back in the olden days, my mum would use mortar instead of blender. It is an old tradition of sambal making with mortar).

• Heat oil in a pan.

• When the oil is moderately hot, paste in and sauté it until fragrant and dry. Use medium heat and stir constantly to avoid the paste sticking to the pan.

• Let it rest and cool down before storing the rest in the fridge.

Cal's Sambal

Raw Ikan Billis (Anchovies)

After Deep Fried.. CRISPY !