Sambal Oelek
It all started with a crossword mentionning a famous salad (gado-gado) which I had to look up on the internet, and then one link led to another...The salad is served with peanut sauce, which you can optionally spice with sambal oelek.
What you need :
| What | img |
|---|---|
| Whole Fresh Red / Green Chilies |  |
| Ripe Tomatoes |  |
| Shallots: or substitute with ΒΌ onion |  |
| Onion: or substitute with 3 shallots |  |
| Garlic Cloves |  |
| White Granulated Sugar: or substitute with cane sugar |  |
| Chicken Bouillon Powder: aka chicken stock powder |  |
| Fresh Lime Juice |  |
| Neutral oil |  |
| Salt |  |
Putting it together
- If you use dried chillies, let them soak in warm water a couple of hours.
- First heat 2 tablespoon or 30 ml vegetable oil in a large pan or wok on high heat.
Then add red and green chili peppers, onion, shallots, tomatoes and garlic cloves.
Char them until the edges are browned. - Next transfer the charred ingredients in the pan to a blender, food processor or stone mortar and pestle.
Then blend on high or pound the ingredients into a chunky paste. - Next pour the ingredients back into the pan.
- Then bring the paste to a boil on medium-high heat and stir in 125 ml vegetable oil,
white granulated sugar, salt, lime juice and chicken powder.
Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes uncovered. - Lastly taste and season with more sugar, salt or chicken powder if needed.
The simplest one goes like this:
- Put half a kilo of fresh chile in a blender with 2 tsp of rice vinegar and 1 tsp of salt.
- Blend
- Store in fridge
The reason I used the "complicated" recipe is to make up for the fact I'm using dried chillies and not fresh ones, so I had to find the "paste" somewhere else.