Sambal Istimewa, which is Indonesian and translates to âspecial sauceâ or maybe âextraordinary chilli condimentâ. It is my favourite in that it is one I make instead of buy. I make it when there are too many chillies on the bush and they have to be used up.
Chillies come in many flavours and levels of heat. I grow medium to mild cultivars because I want to enjoy the flavour of the chilli with some heat not to burn my mouth so that I canât taste anything. If you want to go the same way buy fresh long red chillies that are labelled mild or medium, these are generally fairly large (not to be confused with bullâs horn capsicum) and fleshy. Small chillies are generally hotter. If you want to extend the experience of eating this condiment to the day after you eat it by all means use hot chillies.
Recipe
The quantities are not exact and, like the chillies, can be varied according to taste. I would often make larger quantities than this when I have a glut. The exotic ingredients can be found online or in Asian grocers. Trasi and kemiri nuts keep well and are used in a lot of SE Asian cooking so this is not the only thing you will do with them.
- 20 large red chillies, seeded and roughly chopped. Note that much of the heat is in the placenta (yup plants have them too) which is the white flesh that holds the seeds inside the fruit. So you can control the heat to a degree by including or excluding it.
- 2 large brown onions roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 tablespoon trasi (also called blachan) chopped
- juice of a lemon or more
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar (prefer dark brown)
- 1 teaspoon salt or more to taste
- 8 candle nuts (also called kemiri nuts) ground in a mortar and pestle
- 2 teaspoons coriander seed and 1 teaspoon cummin seed ground finely
- peanut oil as required.
Process the chillies, onions, blachan and garlic in a food processor until fairly smooth. Use 2 tablespoons of oil to lubricate. If it is not liquid enough to process add the lemon juice too or more oil. At this point it will look a shade of pink or orange.
Put the mix in a suitable size frying pan and begin to cook on a medium heat. Open the window, switch on the exhaust fan, trasi stinks! Add all the other ingredients and keep cooking, stirring often. The mix will darken as it cooks and as the water evaporates. When nearly done taste and adjust the balance by adding more salt, sugar or lemon juice until it tastes right. It ought to be aromatic, pungent, hot, and somewhat sweet and sour, and just a little salty.
Cook until it is stiff enough to stand in a spoon, if it sticks or looks dry add more oil. It is done when it is dark and the oil separates.
When done cool and transfer to a suitable jar with a lid. There ought to be enough oil to just cover the surface. It will keep for months in the fridge.
Uses
Use in place of chilli sauce. Serve as a side dish for Asian meals. Spicy soups like laksa need a dob on top when served.
For the dedicated you can eat it on cracker biscuits with beer. A bite of sambal, a slurp of beer, a bite of sambal, a slurp of beer, a bite of sambal, a slurp of beer etc.
