We Indonesians love spicy food, and we never forget to use Indonesian Sambal (Chili Paste). There are lots of famous sambals in Indonesia, but one of my go-tos is the Sambal Goreng. This sambal is very versatile, as I can combine it with multiple dishes such as fried tofu, tempeh, bakwan, etc.
3 SIMPLE MAIN INGREDIENTS FOR THE INDONESIAN SAMBAL (CHILI PASTE) RECIPE
This sambal is made with 3 simple ingredients:
- CHILIES – If I’m in Indonesia, I prefer to use ‘cabe rawit merah’. Unfortunately, that chili is not available in the place where I live right now (Singapore) hence I will use the red spicy chili that is available in the grocery store;
- SHALLOTS – This is important, as these shallots give a big influence on the flavor. You can put more if you like them but usually, one-third of the chili is the right shallots-chilies ratio for me. I will cut the shallots before I fry them hence the inner part of the shallots are really cooked, not only the outer layer;
- TOMATOES – You can use either cherry tomato or normal red tomato. I have tried both and the result is just as nice. Cherry tomatoes might be easier for you to measure since they have a smaller size whereas you need to cut the big tomato to get the exact measurement. There is another trick, if you want to make your sambal less spicy, you could increase the ratio of the tomato;
- Other than those 3 main ingredients, you also need salt, sugar, vegetable/mushroom stock powder, and vegetable oil which I believe are already part of your kitchen staples.
WHAT IS THE TOOL YOU ARE GOING TO NEED TO MAKE THE SAMBAL?
Here we go, let’s do it! To make this sambal, there are 3 tools that we need to use:
- NON-STICK PAN – I’m using a BALLARINI ceramic pan which I love to use since the coating is great and rugged. The non-stick property is just great. I’m not sure I get the correct link for the product but this is something similar.
- IMMERSION BLENDER – The traditional way to make this sambal is to use mortar and pestle but I ain’t gonna do that since that would be too laborious. I usually use my Braun immersion blender (some people called it a hand blender) or if you don’t have that, you can use a normal blender. Basically, it is just a thing that can help you to grind the ingredients.
- STOVE (of course!)
STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO MAKE THE INDONESIAN SAMBAL (CHILI PASTE)
- The first thing that you need to do is to put the 3 main ingredients (chilies, shallots, tomatoes ) into the pan with the cooking oil and fry all of them using medium heat.
2. Cover the pan to hold the moisture therefore the main ingredients will be fully cooked on the inside and not become dry.
3. Check and stir it occasionally, and turn off the heat when all of the ingredients have been soft and looked like the picture below.
4. Transfer all of the things from the pan into some bowl (yes include the oil). Don’t wash the pan as you might use it again later. Add salt, mushroom stock, and sugar into the bowl. Blend all of them until they reach the texture that you want. Sometimes I like it super smooth, sometimes I like it quite coarse, well it depends on my mood sometimes.
5. In the last step, put it back into the pan (the same pan that you use in the first step). Fry them again to make all of the flavor combined. Even though it is not healthy, I like to put more oil on this stage sometimes to make it like “chili oil”.
If you ask me when to stop this step, my answer will be when I notice the color change in the sambal (when it becomes a little bit darker). I hope that you can see the color in the below picture.
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